Walter Isaacson Quote

Went to the cemetery he had chosen and were driven around in a golf cart. There were no plots available next to those of Paul and Clara Jobs, and Laurene hated the other options that she was shown, where the headstones were crammed into rows on an undistinguished, flat piece of land. But like her husband, she was imaginative and willful. She pointed to a bucolic ridge crowned by one of the area’s last remaining apricot orchards, the type of grove that Jobs had loved from his childhood. It wasn’t available, she was told. There were no plans or permits to put burial plots there. That did not deter her. After much insistence, she convinced the cemetery director that her husband would eventually have his final resting place near the orchard. Steve would have been proud of her. Laurene was able, then as always, to combine her husband’s pristine taste with her own loving grace. The casket she had made was perfectly crafted and hinged, with no nails or screws. Pure and simple. At the private burial ceremony, it rested on one of the gray industrial tables from the serene design studio at Apple headquarters, where Jobs had spent so many afternoons. Jony Ive had arranged for the table to be brought to the grave-side. There were fifty or so family members and friends in attendance, and some chose to share stories. Disney’s Bob Iger, for example, told of taking a walk with Jobs around the Pixar campus just thirty minutes before the deal with Disney to be announced. Jobs told him that his cancer had returned, and only Laurene and the doctors knew; he felt he had a duty to let Iger know in case he wanted to pull out of the deal. It was an extraordinary gesture on his part,