{"id":149632,"date":"2025-09-17T04:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T04:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/149632\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T04:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T04:50:07","slug":"authors-daughter-says-hes-not-dying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/149632\/","title":{"rendered":"Author’s daughter says he’s not dying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acclaimed Canadian children’s author Robert Munsch has been approved for medical assistance in dying following a dementia diagnosis. <\/p>\n

Robert Munsch, the beloved Canadian author behind children\u2019s books such as \u201cLove You Forever,\u201d \u201cThe Paper Bag Princess\u201d and \u201cMortimer,\u201d has been approved for medical assistance in dying (MAID).<\/p>\n

A New York Times profile of Munsch<\/a> published Sunday revealed that he applied for MAID shortly after being diagnosed with dementia.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello, Doc \u2014 come kill me!\u201d he joked to the Times about his application. \u201cHow much time do I have? Fifteen seconds!\u201d<\/p>\n

He says a date has not yet been set, because the Canadian law<\/a> requires that patients actively consent to MAID at the time of their death.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to pick the moment when I can still ask for it,\u201d Munsch told the Times.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Julie Munsch, the author\u2019s daughter, posted a statement on social media Tuesday to clarify that he is not dying immediately.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father IS NOT DYING!!!,\u201d she wrote in a post on the official Robert Munsch Facebook page, adding that her father\u2019s choice to apply for MAID was made five years ago and was not \u201cnew news.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad is doing well but of course with a degenerative disease it can begin to progress quickly at any point,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThe New York Times article is a great interview with my dad and nowhere does it say my dad isn\u2019t doing well, nor that he\u2019s going to die anytime soon!\u201d<\/p>\n

She ended the post warning about clickbait.<\/p>\n

\u2018Let him die\u2019<\/p>\n

Canada has revised the law, which allows the waiver of the requirement to provide final consent immediately before receiving MAID for patients whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable, including in instances where the person is at risk of losing decision-making capacity before their preferred date.<\/p>\n

Munsch said his decision came after watching one of his brothers die slowly from Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease, fuelling a desire not to linger in a state of prolonged suffering.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey kept him alive through all these interventions,\u201d he told the Times. \u201cI thought: Let him die.\u201d<\/p>\n

CTV News has reached out to Munsch\u2019s representatives for comment but had not heard back as of publication.<\/p>\n

The 80-year-old author first announced his dementia diagnosis in 2021 and has been navigating the disease and the physical challenges that accompany it since then.<\/p>\n

\u2018I am a storyteller\u2019<\/p>\n

Munsch was born in Pittsburgh, Penn., and moved to Canada in 1975. He has written more than 70 children\u2019s books and sold millions of copies across North America. His books have also been translated into 20 different languages.<\/p>\n

Munsch\u2019s stories are often based on real children he met during school visits and performances. Many of his books, including \u201cStephanie\u2019s Ponytail\u201d and \u201cThink Big!\u201d were inspired by children he met on these tours.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a storyteller,\u201d he wrote on his website<\/a>. \u201cI write books for kids, I talk to kids, and I listen to kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

While his books brought joy to generations, Munsch\u2019s personal life included struggles with addiction and mental health.<\/p>\n

Munsch also faced the grief of two stillborn children before adopting three, an experience that inspired \u201cLove You Forever,\u201d published in 1986.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wanted this story to be a book, and I had to change publishers since my regular publisher did not want to do it,\u201d Munsch wrote on his website.<\/p>\n

The book, which traces a mother\u2019s love across decades, was the bestselling children\u2019s book in Canada for three consecutive years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strange thing was that it was also the bestselling kid\u2019s book in the USA, only nobody knew it, including me,\u201d Munsch wrote. \u201cIt never occurred to me that it could be an invisible bestseller.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2008, he suffered a stroke that temporarily erased his memory of his stories. Through speech therapy and perseverance, he gradually returned to storytelling, though less frequently.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can feel it going further and further away,\u201d he told the Times when describing both his thinking and creative processes.<\/p>\n

Despite these challenges, he experienced a brief creative resurgence in 2023, writing \u201cBounce!\u201d which was published in 2024. Another book, \u201cThe Perfect Paper Airplane,\u201d written many years ago and recently revised, is set to be published this fall.<\/p>\n

Honoured with the Order of Canada and a star on Canada\u2019s Walk of Fame, as well as two public schools in Ontario named after him, Munsch\u2019s legacy as a storyteller who listened closely to children remains secure. Even as he faces the final chapter of his life, his stories continue to be cherished across generations.<\/p>\n

With files from CTV News\u2019 Aarjavee Raaj<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Acclaimed Canadian children’s author Robert Munsch has been approved for medical assistance in dying following a dementia diagnosis.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-149632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}