It’s each mother or father’s worst nightmare.

Earlier this week, the 19-year-old son of former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, was discovered useless at UC Berkeley of an obvious drug overdose, in line with his grandmother, Esther Wojcicki. The  information broke extensively yesterday, although Wojcicki posted the information to Fb a number of days in the past, writing: “Tragedy hit my household yesterday. My beloved grandson Marco Troper, age 19 handed away yesterday. Our household is devastated past comprehension. Marco was probably the most sort, loving, sensible, enjoyable and delightful human being. He was simply getting began on his second semester of his freshman yr at UC Berkeley majoring in math and was really loving it. He had a powerful neighborhood of mates from his dorm at Stern Corridor and his fraternity Zeta Psi and was thriving academically. At dwelling, he would inform us infinite tales of his life and mates at Berkeley.”

UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore has stated there have been no indicators of foul play and that an investigation into the demise is underway.

Esther Wojcicki instructed the Palo Alto Every day of her grandson’s passing, “Youngsters in faculty, particularly freshmen and sophomores, experiment with every thing. I feel this was an experiment that went mistaken.” She individually instructed the San Francisco Chronicle: “He ingested a drug, and we don’t know what was in it. One factor we do know, it was a drug.”

Wojcicki stepped down as CEO of the Alphabet-owned subsidiary one yr in the past, writing in a weblog put up that after 9 years within the function, she’d “determined to begin a brand new chapter centered on my household, well being and private initiatives I’m enthusiastic about.”

Neal Mohan, then YouTube’s chief product officer, has run the group since.

I didn’t have the chance to interview Wojcicki whereas she held probably the most prestigious CEO posts on this planet. I do keep in mind being captivated by her look at a Fortune occasion in Aspen again in 2015 as she answered questions that she was requested routinely, centering on how she juggled an all-encompassing job with additionally being a mom to 5 kids. Her interviewer, veteran reporter Adam Lashinsky, was teased in an interview later that very same day with brothers Ari and Rahm Emanuel, who famous that Lashinsky didn’t ask them in any respect about their kids. However honestly,  as a working mom of two kids and a significantly less-demanding job on the time, I used to be additionally curious how Wojcicki — who gave delivery to her youngest youngster simply forward of the occasion — dealt with all of it.

Notably, she didn’t push again on the query. As a substitute, she talked about associating her completely different kids with completely different levels of Google’s development, after first responding, “‘You’re fairly busy’ is possibly the brief reply. I like youngsters, I like work and I feel at some stage I simply love creating issues and constructing. And like youngsters are very rewarding initiatives. Constructing firms is rewarding too and I take pleasure in doing each.”

My coronary heart now breaks for Wojcicki and her household, which is thought far past their dwelling in Silicon Valley and consists of 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki; Susan and Anne’s sister Janet, a professor of pediatrics on the College of California, San Francisco; and their mom Esther Wojcicki, herself a renown educator who has written extensively on the way to increase profitable kids.

Maybe unsurprisingly, Esther Wojcicki instructed the SF Chronicle that the household is talking with the press partially to “forestall this from occurring to every other household.” 

“Tragedy could be very laborious to maintain,” she instructed the Chronicle. “It makes you wish to disguise in a closet and by no means come out. However I feel the principle factor is that we have to push ahead to see what we are able to do to assist different folks so there gained’t be every other youngsters who find yourself like Marco.”

Presumably, his demise is already sparking widespread conversations. After listening to of it late yesterday, I reminded my very own kids of the risks of right this moment’s medicine, how painfully treasured life is, and that nobody is proof against calamity.