Patton Oswalt has paid an emotional tribute to his wife Michelle McNamara a year after her unexpected death. In the lengthy message posted on his Facebook, the stand-up comedian remembers the details of the sad day in which his wife passed away and gives fans an update on how he and daughter Alice, eight, have coped since the tragic day.
"It's awful, but it's not fatal," the post begins. The actor then explains that after dropping off her daughter at school and going back home to his office to do some work, he found his wife, who was 46 years old, unresponsive in bed. "Came back down into the house and the life I knew was gone. I'm one year into this new life -- one I never even imagined, and I can imagine some pretty pessimistic and dark contingencies, some stomach-freezing 'what ifs'," he writes.
© Photo: Getty ImagesPatton Oswalt and Michelle McNamara had been married for 10 years
The father-of-one also reveals he has decided to take his wedding ring off, but is placing it somewhere very special. "Last night I took off my wedding ring. I couldn't bear removing it since April 21st, 2016. But now it felt obscene," he says.
"I put the ring in this little box I'd had made, when Michelle and I moved out of the house we lived in together in Burbank -- first as boyfriend/girlfriend, then as fiancees, then as a married couple. When we moved into our new house I had the box made, and filled with it random trinkets and scraps of our life leading up to marriage, [...] so the ring goes with the happy stuff."
Michelle, whose death was caused by prescription drugs combined with a heart condition that the writer was not aware of, left behind an eight-year-old daughter, who according to dad Patton "is becoming a cool bug girl".
"I'm gonna pick Alice up at school later. She wants to go to a pet store and buy 'worms that will grow into beetles.' She's becoming a cool bug girl and Michelle would have thought that was hilarious (Michelle HATED insects). Then we'll go get ice cream. Or go home and play a game. I'm her dad. I want to make her days fun," he says.
The 48-year-old actor finishes the lengthy tribute explaining that life as a widower has not been easy but it has been a learning curve. "I plan things better. I'm more patient. I still sleep badly, and my weight and health need some work, but that's combat damage. There's got to be a way to fix those without being [bad] to friends and strangers who are struggling with chaos. I'll try," he concludes.
