Mommy blogger Jill Smokler, who founded the Scary Mommy website, died Monday following a battle with brain cancer. She was 48.
The mum of three announced in May 2024 that she’d been diagnosed with glioblastoma, which Cleveland Clinic identifies as a grade IV brain tumour for which there are treatments but no cure, and generally kills sufferers within 12 to 18 months.
Smokler’s death was confirmed to today.com by her brother Matt Epstein, who also shared with the outlet a family statement, in which she was remembered as “funny, fearless, generous, and entirely herself.”
“More than anything she built, Jill was proudest of her three children, Lily, Ben, and Evan,” said Epstein. “We are heartbroken to lose her, and endlessly proud of the mark she left on the world.”
Her passing was also confirmed via her Instagram account, which began by remembering Smokler’s inaugural Scary Mommy post on March 21, 2008.
“What followed was almost 20 years of telling the truth — the mess, the boredom, the guilt, the flashes of rage, and the love so big it somehow made all of it worth it,” reads the tribute.
“She said the things mothers weren’t supposed to say out loud, and because she said them first, millions of you finally felt allowed to say them too. … If she meant something to you, we’d love to hear it.”
The tribute thanked those who loved Smokler and were “part of the community she built,” and asked that those to whom Smokler “meant something” share how she impacted them.
The post also requested that rather than flowers, donations be made in her memory to The Brain Tumor Network. - New York Daily News/TNS
