Anne Roiphe. Photo by Katie Roiphe

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Everything changed for author Anne Roiphe when she lost her husband of nearly forty years to a heart attack in 2005.

From cooking for one, to hailing cabs, to unlocking her own front door, she had to piece together the practical mechanics of a new life — all while struggling with a grief that seemed unbearable at times.

In her new memoir, “Epilogue,” Roiphe documents the day-to-day challenges of widowhood and her cautious quest for new love.

This hour, On Point: Anne Roiphe on love, loss, and a life remade.

Have you lost a spouse, a partner? What did you have to relearn? Share your thoughts, and join the conversation.

-Jane Clayson, guest host

Joining us from New York City is acclaimed author Anne Roiphe. Since her first book was published in 1967, she has written nine novels and three memoirs, as well as essays and reviews for The New York Times, Vogue, The Guardian, and many other publications. Her latest book is “Epilogue: A Memoir.”

Also joining us is Brian de Vries, professor of gerontology at San Francisco State University and an expert on grief, bereavement, and widowhood.

It’s a question many of us probably ask ourselves, or the ones we love: How would we prefer to die? In our sleep, perhaps, on our 100th birthday? Not young, anyway. Not in pain.

But then the broader question, in a country that tries to defy mortality, may be: what is a “good” or “timely” death?

Journalist Eleanor Clift faced these issues three years ago. As her husband was at home dying from cancer, Terri Schiavo’s veru public death was in the spotlight. In a new memoir, Clift contrasts these two deaths and looks at how we die in America, and what it means.

This hour, On Point: Eleanor Clift on love, life, and death.

-Jane Clayson

Guest:

Eleanor Clift, contributing editor for Newsweek magazine, panelist on The McLaughlin Group, author of “Two Weeks of Life: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Politics”

In their new movie, “The Bucket List,” when Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman’s characters get the news that they’re going to die, and soon, they set out to do it all — skydive, climb Everest, see the Pyramids, travel the world.

When high school chemistry teacher Bryan Cranston is given six months to live in AMC’s new series “Breaking Bad,” he opens a meth lab and tries to make his family rich, quick.

What would you do?

This hour, On Point: we talk with real people given months to live, about life when the clock is ticking loud, and their real-life “bucket lists.”

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Phillip Krone, 66 years-old political consultant. In 2005, he was diagnosed with gallbladder cancer. In 2006, came a diagnosis of liver cancer and was given six months to a year to live.

Kris Carr, 36 years-old documentary filmmaker and author of “Crazy Sexy Cancer.” In 2003, she was diagnosed with a rare stage four sarcoma for which there is no cure.

Judith Freedman, 59 years-old psychotherapist. In 2002, she was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and given 6-10 months to live.