Alex Trebek Spent His Last Day Exactly How He Wanted To

Jeopardy host Alex Trebek spent the final hours of his life doing exactly what he wanted to be doing on his last day on the planet. "Even in his book, he described that he wanted his final day to be sitting on his swing next to his wife, Jean, and kind of watching the horizon and he got to do that," Jeopardy executive producer Mike Richards told the Today Show. And it was a final day that gave comfort to those who loved Trebek, who died of stage-four pancreatic cancer on Sunday morning. "He was coherent, he wasn’t in pain and the fact that he had a nice, final day makes all of us in the Jeopardy! family feel much better."

Richards added that the backyard swing Trebek loved was one that Trebek rebuilt himself earlier in the year. "He was very handy. I don’t know if a lot of people know that." The 80-year-old leaves behind his wife of 30 years, Jean Currivan, and their children, Emily and Matthew, reports Page Six. Trebek filmed his final episode on Oct. 29, and Richards said he could tell Trebek was in tremendous pain but cared so much about getting the show done. It will come as a gift to those who loved the game-show host: Vox reports it will air on Christmas Day. (More Alex Trebek stories.)