Laura’s Blog

I was helping an author revise the bio that would appear on his book’s back cover. Here’s the copy he sent me:

I have been a widower since 1978, when my wife pasted away from cancer, we had 11 children of which 3 have past away.

We’ll ignore the run-on and jump straight to this sentence’s sticky issue: past/passed.

Use “past” when referring to a period of time that has gone by:

• In my past, I was married and had 11 children.

Use “passed” when referring to the action of passing:

• My wife passed away…
• Three of my children have passed away…

One does not paste away from cancer… paste is an adhesive.