Ron Cephas Jones, who played Randall's biological father, William, on This Is Us, passed away on August 19, 2023. He left behind a legacy of excellent screen work, including his 45 episodes of This Is Us, for which he won two Emmys. In honor of him, The Emily Dahl Foundation is revisiting one of William's most poignant moments on the show. 

This Is Us Season 6, Episode 17 was powerful and is one of the best introspections on death that you will ever encounter. Dan Fogleman is piercing the reality of the way things actually are and is pushing us to recognize the nature of things with real life experience. Every single one of us will face the death of a loved one. After a long battle with Alzheimer's, Rebecca (Mandy Moore) died, and the way her family told her goodbye was beautiful. Viewers were taken inside Rebecca's mind as she approached death. For her, this manifested in the form of a moving train. Rebecca was young on the train, and the passengers were people in her life, past and present. Meanwhile, in real life, as Rebecca's family said their final goodbyes, they appeared on the train. And the person leading her through this experience, acting as the conductor, was William (Ron Cephas Jones). 

At the end of the episode, after the family members have said their last words to Rebecca, she reaches the train's caboose. "This is quite sad, isn't it?" she asks William. "The end?" 

To this, William gives a beautiful, stunning speech to Rebecca. These are the last words she hears before going into the caboose (before she passes away). Here is what William says that provides immense wisdom regarding the loss of a loved one. 

"The way I see it, if something makes you sad when it ends, it must have been pretty wonderful when it was happening. Truth be told, I always felt it a bit lazy to just think of the world as sad, because so much of it is. Because everything ends. Everything dies. But if you step back, if you step back and look at the whole picture, if you're brave enough to allow yourself the gift of a really wide perspective, if you do that, you'll see that the end is not sad, Rebecca. It's just the start of the next incredibly beautiful thing." 

Dan Fogleman, the director and producer of THIS IS US has done an amazing job teaching millions of fans the truth of the way things are in this incredible world. He is making poetry and using parables in an effort to help others end the suffering that is appearing constantly in their minds like a movie show. 

This quote by the mystic Ramana Maharshi is a clue as to what Dan Fogelman is asking us to do. 
 
“We know that the train carries all loads, so after getting on it why should we carry our small luggage on our head to our discomfort, instead of putting it down in the train and feeling at ease?” 

― Ramana Maharshi, Who Am I?

The Emily Dahl Foundation 
February 2025