Here is a brief excerpt from an article by Gabe Cohn, Peter Libbey, and Lauren Messman for The New York Times.

Credit for Boseman photo: American magazine.

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It’s always difficult to lose a favorite actor or a beloved musician. But in 2020, a year of crisis upon crisis, some of those losses were especially painful, brought on by a pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands of people in the United States alone. The artists on this list could help us better understand the time we’re living through, or at least help us get through it with a smile or cathartic cry. These are tributes to them, in their own words.

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“When I dared to challenge the system that would relegate us to victims and stereotypes with no clear historical backgrounds, no hopes or talents, when I questioned that method of portrayal, a different path opened up for me, the path to my destiny.”

— Chadwick Boseman, actor, born 1976 (To read his NYT obituary, please click here.)

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Here is a direct link to the complete article, to the “last words” shared by Chadwick Boseman and dozens of others who also died in 2020, one of the worst years the human race has as yet endured.