Eli Timoner was 43 years old when he founded Air Florida in 1971. Offering affordable fares, the successful airline soon expanded to national and international flights. Timoner and his wife, Lisa, raised two daughters and a son, were heavily involved in philanthropy, and enjoyed the typical amenities inherent in their prosperity. In the summer of 1982, triggered by a massage, Eli had a stroke; some arterial plaque or a blood clot was broken free, ending up in his brain. The stroke left Eli paralyzed on his left side and in need of a cane or wheelchair for mobility. Forty years later, a bedridden Eli is beset with increasingly severe health issues, congestive heart disease chief among them. Eli has made a decision. Eli wants to die.
Fortunately, now living with Lisa in Los Angeles, Eli is in one of the dozen states where an End of Life Option Act is legally on the books. And as it happens, one of Eli’s daughters is Ondi Timoner, the award-winning documentary filmmaker whose works include Dig!, We Live in Public, and Cool It. With Last Flight Home, Ondi records the last 15 days of her father’s life, the waiting period required by law before Eli can take what he refers to as the “goodbye powder.”
While the film details the practical process involved in such an endeavor – the various interviews with doctors and therapists, the logistics of gathering family members, the procurement of the drugs – it is the family dynamics laid bare that emerge as the most fascinating element here. Guilt, shame, and regret are all frequent topics of discussion, as the family comes to terms with this impending event in wildly different ways. But however acutely intimate and emotionally formidable Last Flight Home can be (it is relentlessly both), it is thankfully tempered by the human being at the center of it. Eli is a kind and generous man whose wit and capacity for love are eloquently captured. As he says his goodbyes (via Zoom) to all the people in his life, as he shares final moments with his grandchildren, as he sheds his ego and embraces his worth as a human being and the legacy of love he has created, Last Flight Home becomes a deeply moving inquiry into what the measure of a man truly is. Death can be very life-affirming.
This article appears in October 28 • 2022.