Patton Oswalt remembers and honours his late wife in a heartfelt post

Just because someone is gone doesn’t mean they aren’t still very much present. Patton Oswalt reminded fans everywhere of that message recently when he took to social media to honour his late wife, Michelle McNamara, on what would have been her 50^th birthday. The actor posted a sweet tribute to the former true crime writer on Twitter, honouring her memory.McNamara tragically passed away in her sleep in April 2016 at the age of 46. A year later Oswalt revealed the official cause of death had been deemed a combination of prescription medications and an undiagnosed heart condition. At the time she left behind her husband and her then-seven-year-old daughter, Alice.

Happy 50th, Michelle. I hope wherever you are there's good coffee, a strong WiFi connection, and endless mysteries for you to crack. pic.twitter.com/4EVqwlzQso

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) April 14, 2020

“The second worst day of my life was the day that my wife passed away, that was the second worst day of my life,” Oswalt revealed in his 2017 Netflix special, Patton Oswalt: Annihilation. “The worst day of my life was the day after when I had to tell our daughter.” Since then he’s been candid about the difficulties of being a single father, as well as the challenges of co-parenting with his second wife, writer and actress Meredith Salenger, whom he married in November 2017. Through it all, he’s never lost his sense of humour.[video_embed id='5502695892001']RELATED: Patton Oswalt Shrugs Off the Critics of His Engagement[/video_embed]“It's the life force reasserting itself. I'm going to be this sad, and no matter how much despair wants me down, I have an opposite force in terms of laughter and comedy,” Oswalt told former SNL star Kevin Nealon on his YouTube series, Hiking With Kevin, last year. “People see that process happen, it's like this reminder of, like, you can still live. You've got the energy in you to push past this.”Fans and friends quickly jumped in to share their own memories and messages of support following Oswalt’s birthday post. Actor Thomas Lennon posted a picture of McNamara in the comments, Yvette Nicole Brown and Merrin Dungey each shared several heart emojis, and Rhea Seehorn, for whom Oswalt has been campaigning to win an Emmy for her role on Better Call Saul, wrote, “Peace & love to her, & to your family.”At the time of McNamara’s death she had been working on a book about the Golden State Killer, who was notorious in the 1970s and 1980s. That book, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, was published following her death and became a New York Times bestseller. That novel is also credited as helping to break open the cold case; two months after its release, former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested, and according to recent court documents it looks as though he may plead guilty to 13 murder counts if the death penalty comes off the table.Oswalt, meanwhile, has been busier than ever with work. He starred in the two-season comedy A.P. Bio, he continues to narrate The Goldbergs, and he just wrapped an epic run doing voicework on BoJack Horseman. He also has several projects in the works, including next month’s release of his latest Netflix comedy special, I Love Everything. According to Variety the special will cover everything from life in his 50s and raising his daughter to the trial and error of buying a house.“[Going onstage was] a rebuke to grief, an acceptance of the messiness of life,” Oswalt revealed in 2016. “I’ll never be at 100 percent again, but that won’t stop me from living this.”[video_embed id='1940080']Before you go: Looking back at the Brad and Angelina photos that rocked Hollywood, 15 years later[/video_embed]