Gretch, as we dive into 2026 on the podcast, we know that so many of us want to focus on wellness.
And I love that Whole Foods Market is basically a one-stop shop for wellness.
You can get great lean protein.
You can find good vitamins.
They have meal shortcuts.
If you're doing dry January, Whole Foods Market has great non-alcoholic beer, wine, and mocktails.
Of course, you have to be 21 plus in select states to get those.
But it's all stuff you can get for a good price.
Yes, you can find examples of nourishing and cost-friendly finds that will help you towards whatever your wellness goal is.
And everything follows Whole Foods Market's strict ingredient standards.
Plus, their 365 brand has delicious and wallet-happy varieties of all kinds of foods that are ready to eat or whatever you're looking for.
Shop all things wellness at Whole Foods Market.
I'm Gretchen Rubin, and this is A Little Happier.
In December, my beloved father, Jack Craft, died at the age of 87.
My mother, my sister Elizabeth and I were all together for his last conversation and his last breath.
He didn't want a funeral, so after he died, the three of us spent several days writing and rewriting his obituary as a way to express our love and pay tribute to him.
Although we didn't realize it when we started working on it, the process of writing this obituary turned out to be such a solace, a way for us to reflect on the person we loved so much and talk about him and reminisce.
This exercise also gave us a respite from grief, because we'd get caught up in the creative process of making this piece of writing as good as it could be.
Here is what we wrote.
Jack Kraft died on December 2nd, 2025 from an aortic valve infection at the age of 87.
Beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, friend, and citizen.
John Charles Craft was born in Denver, Colorado, the son of Cecil and Ellen Craft.
He grew up in North Platte Nebraska, and considered himself fortunate to have been raised in a small Midwestern town.
He was married for 64 years to his high school sweetheart, Karen Winfrey, who always says the best decision of her life was to transfer from Wellesley College to the University of Nebraska to join him.
She has fifth grade memories of Jack.
He stood out because he loved to talk.
At the University of Nebraska, Jack majored in history, a lifelong interest.
He was president of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and lettered in tennis.
His granddaughter, Eliza, wears his Letterman sweater.
Growing up, Jack worked as a land surveyor in the Nevada desert and Wyoming plains for the Union Pacific Railroad, sold vodka-spiked oranges with his fellow lettermen at Cornhusker Games and labored in his father's squirt pot-bottling plant a job that taught him he'd rather be a lawyer.
After graduating from Northwestern Law School, where he served on the Law Review, Jack and Karen moved to Kansas City.
He joined the law firm of Lathrop Ryder, Gordon, and Parker.
Not long after he started, he got a phone call from a young lawyer in St.
Louis, John Danforth, who asked Jack to help run his campaign for Missouri Attorney General.
After the election, Jack joined Danforth's office, two of the most formative, fun years of his career.
Influenced by a father and mother who each served in the Nebraska legislature.
Jack was an old school Republican who believed in the value of government.
He often quoted the line good government is good politics and never hesitated to reach across the aisle.
When his close friend Kit Vaughn ran for auditor governor and then senator Jack played a major part in his campaigns.
Over the years.
Among his many other roles, Jack advised Mayor Richard Berkeley and was legal counsel to the police board.
In 1987, Jack founded Kraft, Fridkin & Rhein, a law firm that specialized in business and regulatory law.
He initiated the conversion of the historic main post office on Pershing Road into an internal revenue service center.
In 2004, the firm merged its practice with Lathrop & Gage.
Finding solutions for tough problems was a challenge Jack embraced.
Throughout his life, Jack worked hard for the benefit of both Kansas City and Missouri.
He served as chairman of many civic initiatives, including the Public Improvements Advisory Committee, the Kansas City Port Authority, the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority, and led the effort to fund a major expansion of the Kansas City Zoo.
He was involved in the community in countless other ways as a founding member of the Local Investment Commission, as a board member of the Hawthorne Foundation and as a board member of Missouri's Children and Family Services.
Of his many accomplishments, he was probably most proud of Union Station.
He led the bi-state initiative that funded the redevelopment of the Kansas City icon.
While few believed that a bi-state tax could pass, Jack persevered and the hope became a reality.
That tax is thought to be the first of its kind in the United States.
During Union Station's historic renovation, Jack convinced his family to climb the 95-foot scaffolding to touch the decorative ceiling medallions.
No father was ever more consistently loving, fair, and ready for fun.
He made batches of fudge to be eaten straight from the pan, relished annual father-daughter dinners, delighted in the Missouri State Fair, took weekly visits to the library.
Elizabeth's friends commented on his huge, ever-present smile and nicknamed him Smiling Jack.
Gretchen and Elizabeth appreciated the fact that he gave great advice, but only when asked.
Most often, he counseled them to enjoy the process.
He even had a mug emblazoned with his favorite motto.
He took great interest in his daughter's professional lives, becoming a minor expert in Hollywood dealmaking and the economics of book publishing.
The risks he took in his own life taught them that they could take risks too.
Secure in the knowledge he would never judge their decisions, only support them.
Jack said being a grandparent was an experience even better than expected.
He tirelessly read stories aloud, flipped Swedish pancakes just like the ones Mrs Bargell used to make, made visits to foos and ate the decorated gingerbread cookies baked by Jack, Eliza and Eleanor.
With boundless enthusiasm, he led trips to the zoo, worlds of fun, top golf, and escape rooms.
A lifelong athlete.
Over the years he pursued golf tennis running, working out with a Nordic track, twice-weekly personal training and even a period of hot yoga.
He took great pleasure in long morning walks through the grounds of the Nelson Atkins Museum and Kauffman Garden, especially when a daughter walked with him.
He started every morning with the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
He read everything from Apple in China to de Tocqueville to Middlemarch.
Surprisingly, he was a fan of Game of Thrones.
This year, he joined the whole family in a slow read of War and Peace.
Jack enjoyed many things.
Trader Joe's coffee, ice cream pinball, the In Our Time podcast, his daughter's podcasts, power naps, the Beach Boys' good vibrations, Japanese gardens, oriental rugs, German chocolate cake, watching the sun rise from the kitchen window, lunches and dinners with friends and running errands at Costco the only kind of shopping he looked forward to.
He was a happy assistant to Karen in decorating for Christmas.
Jack and Karen were tireless sightseers in dozens of countries and in Paris last May, logged more than 17000 steps in a single day.
On every trip to New York, Jack made two or three visits to the Met.
He loved Kansas City, the Chiefs Winsteads, Loose Park, Q39 Breakfast Club speakers and the Plaza Lights.
He often remarked, the next six months will be very interesting.
The four of us, Jack, Karen, Gretchen, and Elizabeth, spent his last days together.
We reminisced a visit to Six Flags and 100-degree heat, daily picnics on the beach in Nantucket, driving across Germany and eating free funnel cakes in Eureka Springs.
We laughed over old jokes and discussed the next mayor's race in Los Angeles.
A doctor told us people tend to die the way they lived.
Jack died the way he lived.
He faced a difficult decision with lawyer-like clarity and sweet equanimity, surrounded by his family who loved him with all our hearts.
Until the end, Jack remained himself good-natured clear-thinking curious, optimistic about the Cornhuskers and full of love for us.
Jack has survived by his wife Karen, daughters Gretchen Kraft-Rubin and Elizabeth Kraft-Fierro, sons-in-law Jamie Rubin and Adam Fierro, grandchildren Eliza Rubin, Eleanor Rubin and Jack Fierro, brothers Cecil Kraft and Tom Kraft and sisters Susan Kraft-Kolsky.
As Jack requested, there will not be a funeral.
In Jack's memory, please enjoy a visit to Union Station or Kauffman Garden.
And then there is a poem called Late Fragment by Raymond Carver.
And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.
I'm Gretchen Rubin, and I hope this makes your week a little happier.
Hi, Gretchen, Craig Robinson, and my little sister Michelle here.
We host a new podcast called IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson.
We know you're the queen of giving advice, so we wanted to get a few tips from you.
You know, Gretchen, a lot of our listeners are going through some major life changes.
What advice do you have for folks who are trying to stay grounded in the midst of major life transitions?
Craig and Michelle, I am so happy to be talking to you.
Here are a few questions that might help us gain perspective.
So consider questions like this.
What activities take up my time but are not particularly useful or stimulating for me?
Do I spend a lot of time on something that's important to someone else but is not very important to me?
If I could magically change one habit in my life, what would I choose?
And here's a question.
Would I like to have more time in solitude restorative solitude or would I like to have more time with friends?
You know, just thinking about questions like this can help us start to figure out how we might make our lives happier.
With greater self-knowledge, we're better able to make hard decisions that reflect ourselves, our own nature, our own interests, our own values.
In my own case, I have found that the more my life reflects my nature, the happier I get and the more grounded I feel when I'm going through a period of major change or transition.
For more great advice, search for IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson wherever you get podcasts.
You can listen to Issa Rae on letting go of certain friendships, Kiki Palmer on why disappointment is actually the key to career success, Seth and Lauren Rogan on caring for aging parents, and so many more.
