A few weeks before her death, Tatiana published an essay in The New Yorker in which she spoke about the ordeal she faced with her illness. The essay, titled “A Battle With My Blood,” was published online on November 22, a date that coincides with the anniversary of the assassination of her grandfather, John F. Kennedy. It later appeared in print under the title “A Further Shore.”
In the essay, Schlossberg recounted the moment she discovered her illness: an abnormality in her blood values detected shortly after Josephine’s birth in May, 2024. Doctors initially suspected a connection to her pregnancy and childbirth. The diagnosis, however, soon proved to be far more serious: leukemia, with a rare mutation.
The journalist described the moment of the dramatic discovery with disbelief, recalling a daily life marked by excellent physical fitness: long swims, regular runs, and an active and athletic lifestyle that seemed incompatible with such an aggressive disease. “I was actually one of the healthiest people I knew. I regularly ran five to ten miles in Central Park.” she wrote. “I had a son whom I loved more than anything and a newborn I needed to take care of. This could not possibly be my life.”
One of the most touching passages concerned her mother, Caroline. Tatiana recalled how, throughout her life, she had tried to shield her from the suffering that had marked the Kennedy family. “For my whole life, I have tried to be good, to be a good student and a good sister and a good daughter,” she wrote. “Now I have added a new tragedy to my mother’s life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
The journalist wondered if her son, in the future, might confuse the few memories he had of her “with pictures he sees or stories he hears.” As for young Josie, Tatiana reflected: “I don’t know who, really, she thinks I am, and whether she will feel or remember, when I am gone, that I am her mother.”