Carly Simon’s sisters die one day apart after battles with cancer: ‘I am filled with sorrow’
Carly Simon lost both her sister Wendy and her sister Kate just months apart.
Carly Simon and her children, 3-year-old twins Harper and Harper Collins, with her brothers in the background, at a family photo op in December 2010, according to a family Facebook page.
Simon has been overwhelmed by how her own family has embraced their condition, even as it has brought about a new tragedy for them.
Wendy, 29, and Kate, 24, were killed in a car accident on Thanksgiving Day 2013, two weeks before Christmas. While the death of Wendy was a shock to everyone, it was the loss of Kate, a close sibling, whose death has been particularly devastating to all involved.
“It is such an incredible amount of grief,” Simon said. “The fact that you are able to share your story in such an open way is truly humbling.”
Simon said her family is facing the loss of three generations. The death of her father, Joe, on Christmas Day 2013, was a blow to family cohesion – just months after he was on his way to the hospital to say goodbye to his wife.
Her mother, Janet, and her two sisters, Jane and Wendy, were also lost very close by as they were each in their 20s when the unexpected deaths.
“It’s really hard. Because it took so long to say good-bye to them,” Simon said. “But when you see other sisters losing their babies, and you see your dad leave because he was so sick, it is a whole different set of emotions.”
While Simon’s sisters lost their babies, she has watched her father suffer his first full-on illness – a form of cancer called pancreatic cancer. While his illness was treated, he has spent the past five years on multiple chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. He lost his hair and is now in a wheelchair that cannot be lifted, and is unable to get out of bed.
Simon said his family has made sacrifices