Joe Pendleton is due to die on March 20, 2025 at 10:17am
In the summer of 1978, my close friend Steve DiRocco and I were teenage ushers at the Central Park Fox Theatre in San Antonio. One of the films that premiered that year was Heaven Can Wait, starring Warren Beatty as Joe Pendleton, a backup quarterback for the L.A. Rams who gets mistakenly taken to the afterlife too soon. We absolutely loved the film. As ushers, we had the privilege of watching it hundreds of times, memorizing the dialogue and quoting it back and forth like a secret language.
One moment in the film always stuck with us. Early on, when the guardian angels realize they mistakenly plucked Joe out of his body too soon, they check the records to see when he was actually supposed to die. The answer? March 20, 2025, at 10:17 AM.
At the time, 2025 seemed impossibly distant—like a year we'd never actually reach. We were young, the future stretched endlessly ahead of us, and the idea of being in our sixties felt as far away as another lifetime.
Yet here we are. It’s 2025. Steve and I are in our mid-sixties, and on March 20, we’ll mark the so-called "death day" of Joe Pendleton—the very date we once saw as an abstract point in some far-off future. Fittingly, it also happens to be the first day of Spring, a season of renewal and fresh starts.
That’s how much this film still means to us. Last year, Steve gave me an incredible gift—a #16 Los Angeles Rams jersey, just like the one Joe Pendleton wore in the movie. Decades later, we’re still fans, still connected to those teenage memories, still marveling at how swiftly time moves.
The years pass faster than we ever imagine. What once seemed like forever away arrives before we know it. But maybe that’s the lesson of Heaven Can Wait—that life is fleeting, precious, and filled with second chances.
So here’s to Joe Pendleton, to Warren Beatty’s unforgettable performance, to time’s relentless march, and to the memories of two young theater ushers who once believed the future would never catch up to them.
#HeavenCanWait #TimeFlies #March20th2025#JoePendleton
#WarrenBeatty #ThePassageOfTime#FirstDayOfSpring