Larry Ellison Describes Watching His Close Friend Steve Jobs Die
CBS passed along a transcript of Ellison's comments:
CHARLIE ROSE: Did you watch him die?
LARRY ELLISON: Oh, close. Was I there at the last moments?
CHARLIE ROSE: No, did you watch him go through this?
LARRY ELLISON: You know, I-- I-- I'd go over there all the time. And the walks-- we'd always go for walks. We'd always go for walks. And the walks just kept getting shorter. Until near the end we'd kind of walk around the block or maybe-- maybe four blocks, something like that. And you just watched him getting weaker. And this is the strongest guy I knew. This was absolutely the strongest, most willful person I have ever met. And after seven years, the cancer even wore him out. And that's was what it was. He was just tired of fighting. Tired of the pain. And he decided, shocked Lorraine, shocked everybody that the medication was gonna stop. He just pulled off the meds-- I think on a Saturday or a Sunday. And by the following Wednesday he-- he was gone.
CHARLIE ROSE: If you love someone it's hard to see them do that, though it's their choice.
LARRY ELLISON: Yeah, it had reached the point where he was definitely suffering. It's just so much pain.
CHARLIE ROSE: There is no other Steve Jobs?
LARRY ELLISON: No. My eulogy began, you know, I guess we're all told that no one's irreplaceable. I don't believe that. I just don't.
CHARLIE ROSE: Well said.