“You don’t want to waste a second, and I was wasting lots of seconds prior.”
Dying is something we rarely want to think about. We may think we’re too busy living to spend our time considering death. But, in Come See Me in the Good Light from director Ryan White, we meet someone who has found life as they die. Come See Me in the Good Light has been shortlisted for two Oscar® categories: Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Song “Salt then Sour then Sweet”.
Andrea Gibson, Colorado’s Poet Laureate, is the focus, (along with their wife, Megan Falley) of this intimate portrait of someone living (note that word) with terminal cancer. As a Spoken Word poet, Andrea has toured the world and gathered much acclaim. In 2021, they were diagnosed with ovarian cancer. After a few rounds of treatment, their doctor said it could be understood if they chose to end treatments. However, Andrea had come to understand that they wanted to live and enjoy as much time as possible.
Andrea Gibson in “Come See Me in the Good Light,” now streaming on Apple TV.
For Andrea, the certainness of death’s approach gave them an appreciation of the importance of each moment. In a scene near the end, Andrea reflects “I remember thinking, in the beginning, right, two years to live. I thought that’s so little. And now, I feel like ‘Holy shit, that’s so much.’ Like a second is so much. A minute here sitting looking at Meg’s face is so much. I get two years of it.”
This is an amazingly intimate documentary. The camera is with Andrea and Meg in what most of us would want to be very private moments. Much of their life, during the time of filming, was lived in three seek cycles between blood test results. When the results come in on the phone, it could be something to celebrate—or something that darkens the world. Yet we are there with them and share in the times of dread, sorrow, and rejoicing.
That intimacy also takes us into the very loving relationship between Andrea and Meg. They tease each other, they support each other, they seem to find within the other something that makes each of them more than they are alone. Their love fills this film with a deep warmth, even if the topic might sound so dreary.
This film offers us an opportunity to step away from “living” too much to consider death so that we might think about if we really are living. For Andrea, life became more obvious in the reality of dying. Their time after their diagnosis became a new way of appreciating life and the time they had. We would do well to hear them when they reflect, “I want my last second to be like, ‘Damn, I wish I had a million more of these.’”
Come See Me in the Good Light is streaming on Apple TV.
Photos courtesy of Apple TV.
