In the most personal moment of his speech, Snow addressed the graduates about love and what it means to be loved. Since the news that his cancer had returned, he had heard from thousands upon thousands of people and been the subject of countless prayers. He told the young graduates — who felt bulletproof and invincible — that the support he received had literally made him feel weightless, as if carried by an army. It was a profound testimony from a man facing his own mortality, speaking not abstractly about love but from the raw experience of receiving it when he needed it most. Snow passed away from colon cancer on July 12, 2008, just over a year after delivering this speech.