Robin Toner

My friend Robin Toner, one of the best reporters in Washington, and also one of the best mothers in Washington, has died. Robin was a genius of reporting, in fact; she almost never got anything wrong, she understood almost everything, and she knew almost everybody. But I know her better as wife to the great Peter Gosselin, and as mother to the adorable and sweet and fiercely intelligent Jake and Nora, twins who are the age of my oldest daughter, with whom they shared their first experience of school, eight years ago. Robin was a superlative mother; she was moved deeply by the experience of parenthood, and it showed, in her devotion and worrying and caring and engagement.

Todd Purdum has done the painful work of writing Robin's obituary, which you can read here. I can't say much more right now. This news is not unexpected, but it still shocks.