Frances Bean Cobain Honors Kurt Cobain on Anniversary of his Death

30 years ago today the music world mourned the loss of Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain, who took his own life on April 5, 1994.

Today, his daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, has shared a statement marking anniversary of her late father’s death. Cobain was 27 at the time of his death, and suffered with bouts of depression, a painful stomach ailment and substance abuse issues.

The statement was shared in an Instagram post featuring a photo R.E.M.‘s Michael Stipe took of the Nirvana front man’s hands, which Frances’ mother, Courtney Love, also shared on social media.

Frances writes that Kurt’s mother, Wendy, would tell her as a baby, “You have his hands.”

“I wish I could’ve known my Dad,” writes Frances, who was about 20 months old when Kurt died by suicide on April 5, 1994. “I wish I knew the cadence of his voice, how he liked his coffee or the way it felt to be tucked in after a bedtime story. I always wondered if he would’ve caught tadpoles with me during the muggy Washington summers, or if he smelled of Camel Lights & strawberry nesquik (his favorites, I’ve been told).”

“But there is also deep wisdom being on an expedited path to understanding how precious life is,” she continues. “He gifted me a lesson in death that can only come through the LIVED experience of losing someone. It’s the gift of knowing for certain, when we love ourselves & those around us with compassion, with openness, with grace, the more meaningful our time here inherently becomes.”

Frances adds that Kurt wrote a letter to her before she was born, which reads, “Wherever you go or wherever I go, I will always be with you.”

“He kept this promise because he is present in so many ways,” Frances says. “Whether it’s by hearing a song or through the hands we share, in those moments I get to spend a little time with my dad & he feels transcendent.”