Ray Bradbury, the master of science fiction, died yesterday at age 91. The New York Times has a memorable obituary.

What I wanted to highlight is Bradbury’s last piece for The New Yorker, where the author writes about his relationship with his grandfather and the inspiration for his short story, “The Fire Balloons”:

While I remained earthbound, I would time-travel, listening to the grownups, who on warm nights gathered outside on the lawns and porches to talk and reminisce. At the end of the Fourth of July, after the uncles had their cigars and philosophical discussions, and the aunts, nephews, and cousins had their ice-cream cones or lemonade, and we’d exhausted all the fireworks, it was the special time, the sad time, the time of beauty. It was the time of the fire balloons.

Even at that age, I was beginning to perceive the endings of things, like this lovely paper light. I had already lost my grandfather, who went away for good when I was five. I remember him so well: the two of us on the lawn in front of the porch, with twenty relatives for an audience, and the paper balloon held between us for a final moment, filled with warm exhalations, ready to go.

Very touching. RIP, Ray Bradbury.