Patton Oswalt honors wife Michelle McNamara: 'She's left a blast crater'

LOS ANGELES, May 4 (UPI) -- Patton Oswalt has penned a heartfelt tribute for his wife Michelle McNamara following her recent death.

"Michelle Eileen McNamara entered the world on April 14, 1970. On April 14, 2016 she turned 46. One week later she was gone. That's the kind of opening Michelle would have written. She'd have done it better," the actor wrote for Time, describing his wife's gift with words as the creator of TrueCrimeDiary.com.

"Added one perfect adjective or geographical shading to pull you in. The pulling in of you, the reader, was never aggressive, calculating or desperate. She didn't have to raise her voice," he continued.

After describing her career writing fiction and non-fictional crime stories, getting involved in social work in Belfast and Oakland, her time screenwriting in Los Angeles and being a musician in Chicago, Oswalt described the effect McNamara had on those around her.

"Her family is devastated but can't help remember all of the times she made them laugh or comforted them, and they smile and laugh themselves. She hasn't left a void. She's left a blast crater," Oswalt said. "I loved her. This is the first time I've been able to use 'I' writing this. Probably because there hasn't been much of an 'I' since the morning of April 21. There probably won't be for a while. Whatever there is belongs to my daughter—to our daughter. Alice."

Oswalt then included his daughter's heartbreaking words after McNamara's death. "Five days after Michelle was gone, Alice and I were half-awake at dawn, after a night of half-sleeping. Alice sat up in bed. Her face was silhouetted in the dawn light of the bedroom windows. I couldn't see her expression. I just heard her voice: "When your mom dies you're the best memory of her. Everything you do and say is a memory of her."

"That's the kind of person Michelle created and helped shape. That was Michelle. That is Michelle. I love her," he concluded.

McNamara died in her sleep at the age of 46 in April. The cause of her death has not been publicly disclosed.

Speaking with People magazine Tuesday, Oswalt noted, "I would be beyond happy if Alice were 80 percent Michelle and maybe 20 percent me. The 20 percent will probably be pop culture knowledge, but I'm doing what I can."