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In Memory of My Wife, Elise Cawley (1961–2026), with Thanks for 36 Wonderful Years—Stephen Wolfram Writings

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Something terrible just happened. My wife, Elise Cawley, was recovering from heart surgery and had just attended virtually a celebration for one of our children when she had a freak, vast cardiovascular event—and died instantly. We had been together for 36 years. The picture above was taken just hours before she died. In all the writing and public speaking I have done, I have chosen, as a matter of privacy, to say little about my family. But now that Elise is gone I cannot restrain myself from telling the world something about the remarkable person with whom I shared the past 36 years of my life. It was September 17, 1990, and I was in New York City. The event I had been attending finished a little early, so I decided to drop in on a friend of mine. And there, sitting stylishly on the floor, was Elise, a somewhat bashful but obviously brilliant young pure mathematician. It took me a couple of weeks to call her. But from that moment on we talked essentially every day for 36 years—until

In Memory of My Wife, Elise Cawley (1961–2026), with Thanks for 36 Wonderful Years August 4, 2026 Something terrible just happened. My wife, Elise Cawley, was recovering from heart surgery and had just attended virtually a celebration for one of our children when she had a freak, vast cardiovascular event—and died instantly. We had been together for 36 years. The picture above was taken just hours before she died. In all the writing and public speaking I have done, I have chosen, as a matter of privacy, to say little about my family. But now that Elise is gone I cannot restrain myself from tel

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