- [Carolyn] For as long as I knew Eugene,
he had his sight set on space.
All these years later I can't believe he's still up there.
My man on the moon.
(slow piano music)
Eugene and I were married 46 years.
I first met Eugene when he
was studying geology at Princeton.
He would tell me about all the secrets the Earth held.
And of course his favorite, those impact craters.
Soon enough he got me to fall in love with those rocks, too.
After the kids had grown and were out of the house,
I was looking for something to do
and Gene suggested maybe I would like
to see things through the telescope.
We spent our days holed up in Lowell Observatory.
- [Man] I believe that this nation.
- When Kennedy announced that they were going
to send a man to the moon, Gene was terribly excited.
Gene wanted to go to the moon more than anything else.
Then he got the medical test.
Addison's Disease.
His immune system wasn't protecting him
the way it needed to.
They couldn't risk him leaving Earth.
He felt like his goal had suddenly disappeared.
At the same time he was not a quitter.
He set up his own mock lunar site
and trained Neil Armstrong and the rest
of the boys before they took off.
Our focus changed over the years
from looking up at the moon and looking at the sky
to how the Earth was formed.
We packed up and criss-crossed Australia
looking for signs of impact craters.
On the day of the accident,
we were just looking off in the distance,
talking about how much fun we were having.
And then suddenly there appeared
a Land Rover in front of us.
There was no time to think.
The two vehicles collided.
And Gene died.
I had a call while I was in the hospital.
He said they're about to send a mission up to the moon.
I wonder if you would like to put Gene's ashes on the moon,
and so I said I think that would be wonderful.
The whole family was there to wave Gene goodbye.
After the mission was completed,
it ran out of fuel and it crashed into the moon.
And that's where Gene's ashes are now.
Suddenly the man who spent his whole life
studying craters had made his own impact.
I miss him always, but to this day
I can look up at the moon and imagine him
there with his rocks looking down at me.
He still lights up every single one of my night skies.
(pinging)