Overview
- My Book of Days was published Tuesday by The Open Field and is a posthumous memoir Dane worked on in his final year.
- Rebecca Gayheart said she and their daughters did not realize that February’s hospital stay would be his last and that the doctors’ tone and information "shifted" around the third day.
- Gayheart said Dane remained mentally aware, communicated imperfectly and made deliberate choices about how he wanted to die.
- To comfort him, Gayheart and the couple’s teenage daughters camped out in his hospital room, using battery candles and his favorite music to preserve family routines.
- Dane was first misdiagnosed with multifocal motor neuropathy before a UCSF neurologist diagnosed ALS in 2024, he died Feb. 19, 2026 of respiratory failure, and the memoir is framed as a record for his daughters and a push to raise ALS awareness and research support.