Letters to Steve_ Inside the E-Mail Inbox of Apple's Steve Jobs - Mark Milian [33]
Steve Jobs’ outlook on life did not change over the next 16 years. His authorized biographer, Walter Isaacson, wrote that Steve’s final days were spent mapping and tuning new projects for Apple, and meeting friends to reminisce for one last time. This was the real end, not the false alarm he disclosed in the Stanford speech, though the ultimate steps are the same: “My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.” In the biographer’s final interview with Steve shortly before his death, Walter asked why such a private man would grant such unprecedented access. “I wanted my kids to know me,” Steve said. “I wasn't always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.”
Steve Jobs put a dent in the universe. He transformed industries, improved important tools and changed things for humankind. Earth raced to keep up with him. We needed Steve, and for the biggest fans, one short e-mail acknowledgement was a triumph. Steve apparently needed us, too. “You know, there’s nothing that makes my day more than getting an email from some random person in the universe who just bought an iPad over in the U.K. and tells me the story about how it’s the coolest product they’ve ever brought home, you know, in their lives. That’s what keeps me going. And it’s what kept me going five years ago. It’s what kept me going 10 years ago, when the doors were almost closed. And it’s what’ll keep me going five years from now, whatever happens,” Steve said in 2010. He died a year later.
The five stages of grief played out publicly around the world. Many of the people who knew him and were closest to him broke Steve’s culture of secrecy to tell their stories that unveiled the shreds of his genius. Those Silicon Valley luminaries convened a couple of weeks after Steve’s death at the Stanford Memorial Church for an exclusive memorial. Hundreds of friends, technology leaders, elected officials and celebrities — President Bill Clinton, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, U2‘s Bono, former vice president Al Gore, Google CEO Larry Page and singer Joan Baez — attended to pay their respects. California Governor Jerry Brown declared October 16, 2011 as Steve Jobs Day.
Three days later, thousands of Apple employees at its Cupertino, California headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop stepped away from their terminals to convene in the campus courtyard amphitheater for a large celebration of Steve Jobs’ life. Pictures of Steve were draped from the sides of office buildings. Apple closed every one of its stores during the celebration so that clerks could tune into a live broadcast of the event and partake in the remembrance.
Apple Stores also provided a public memorial site immediately after his death, when crowds assembled to lay candles, flowers and partially-eaten apples near the entrances. They wrote messages on Post-It notes that were affixed to the stores’ show windows. Apple offered an e-mail address, rememberingsteve@apple.com, for fans to send their condolences and share the impact that Steve had had on their lives. The outpouring was overwhelming, and Apple culled the submissions for a page at apple.com/stevejobs, which presents a flow of stirring and fond letters.
As for Steve Jobs’ direct e-mail address, anyone who sent a message there in the weeks following his death did not get an auto-reply or a bounce-back message. They got what most people, except for a lucky flock, received when Steve was alive and his attention was in high demand: