Age 55

When Jona turned 53 he went into his body doctor for his yearly exam. He mentioned his constant exhaustion and after several tests it was discovered that he had at some point developed cancer. The next couple of years were spent in and out of doctor's offices and going through countless different treatments but in the end he just got sicker and after a while they determined that it had spread too much and nothing else could be done other than making him comfortable. His children were half way across the country and he did not want to worry them about his sickness so he kept it quiet as long as he could. Eventually they did find out, as did half of the world when someone mentioned seeing him leaving a specialist office to a news source. Being even mildly famous meant that his privacy was often seen as optional. He still did not tell anyone how bad it was but he began to make arrangements for the successors of his different businesses and guesses were made. Some of them were even very close to the truth. For a while his sons were underfoot but eventually he forced them to go back to their lives and promised to tell them if things took a worse turn. He had no interest in letting them watch as he wasted away so he made the promise knowing that he would not keep it.

The winter was especially cold the year that he turned 55. Getting out of bed had become more difficult every day and a full time caregiver was hired to help him out. On his clear days he could be found in his writing studio, working on his final book. He swore that he would not die until he had finished it, and by the way he tenaciously hung on despite needing a machine to help him breath at night it was clear that he would do just that. The winter passed by and as spring approached he was down to just a hundred words written on a good day, but he kept working.

One morning the caregiver woke up and went to help him take care of his morning bathroom chores and found him cold and unresponsive. He passed on in his sleep, just hours after he typed the last words of his last book. After his estate was settled that book would go on to be edited and published, and it became the best selling book of his career. Fans who had grown up with him since they were little read through all of his books again after reading it, wondering if they all really tied in together after all. For many years after his legacy would continue to grow as new generations read his words and immersed themselves in the wonder and heartbreak of his stories.

When his sons came to clear out his house they went through his studio for the first time. They were amazed at all the work that had remained hidden away from them their entire lives. They began to wonder about everything they had seen him do over their lives after seeing the woman and reading the same title that was signed on the back of each of the canvases. The same name of the character in his final book. Veronica.