Read Ted Sarandos' Emotional Foreword to Nicole Avant's “Think You'll Be Happy”: 'I'll Meet You There' (Exclusive)

"We can't banish evil," writes Nicole Avant in her searing, uplifting memoir. "We have to learn to swim through trauma and live for all of those who can't."

On Dec. 1, 2021, Nicole Avant received a phone call that would change her life forever. Her husband, Ted Sarandos, had to break the news that Avant's 81-year-old mother, philanthropist Jaqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion in Beverly Hills.

Nicole Avant channeled her grief into her bestselling 2023 memoir, Think You’ll Be Happy, which recounts that tragic night, as well as how she was able to turn her "pain into purpose," according to the book's synopsis. "We can't banish evil," Avant writes. "We have to learn to swim through trauma and live for all of those who can't."

The paperback edition of Think You'll Be Happy comes out on Dec. 3 from Author's Equity and PEOPLE has an exclusive excerpt from the emotional foreword, written by her husband Ted Sarandos.

“This book is an offering for anyone experiencing grief over the loss of someone or even something. My intention in writing Think You’ll Be Happy was to remind readers and listeners that while grief can be heavy and unpleasant, it is part of the human experience that none of us are exempt from and that we can all learn, grow and become better and stronger while navigating and moving through it," Avant says, in a statement shared with PEOPLE.

Read and listen to an excerpt from Think You'll Be Happy, below.

I Will Meet You There

It was just after 2 a.m. I was at a local hotel for an overnight retreat with my board of directors, and the phone rang. I generally turn the ringer off at night, but on this night I did not. The next few hours would be a nightmare, but I was wide awake, and it was all too real. The voice on the other end of the phone was that of my brother-in-law Alex.

"I can’t reach Nicole. My mom has been shot,” he screamed. I’m not sure why, but a sense of calm urgency took over. I knew that Nicole also slept with the phone off — and even more challenging, with earplugs in — but on that night my call to her got through. Bad news is persistent like that. Nicole picked up almost instantly. I told her to get dressed and go to the hospital because her mother had been shot. There were so many questions but no time for any answers. “Just get to the hospital,” I told her, “and I will meet you there.” 

Related: Nicole Avant to Release Paperback of Think You’ll Be Happy, With Foreword by Husband Ted Sarandos (Exclusive)

My own father had just passed away a bit more than a week before, and tragedy was striking again. Jacqueline was my mother-in-law, but she fulfilled all that one could ever ask for in a mother or in a grandmother for your children: loving, supportive, present and wise. And just like that, she was gone. No time to process or find closure or say goodbye.

She made sure that Nicole A. Avant was ready for anything the world could throw at her. She couldn’t have imagined that her daughter would have to be ready for this, but Nicole was. I watched her transform in every way after the surreal experience in that hospital when she was told by doctors that Jacquie hadn’t made it. Almost like metamorphosis, but instant. My wife, Nicole, became the matriarch of her powerful and influential family and the keeper of their legacy. It might have fallen to her father, Clarence, but at 90 years old, it was all just too much for him, and Nicole knew it.

When we heard the news from the doctor, I watched Clarence fall into Nicole, and Nicole’s back went stiff as she rose to the challenge in front of her — in front of us. In the next few weeks and months, the busy details of death gave way to grief, and Nicole went with it. She was in conductor mode some days, angry some days, deeply sad others, and I knew that wherever she was, I would meet her there. She had to stop helping me plan my father’s funeral and tend to the planning of her mother’s, neither of which we could have seen coming. We had, in fact, been planning an 80th birthday celebration for my father, Ted senior, which would have been coming in just a few months. 

Nicole’s father, my father-in-law, Clarence Avant, the Black Godfather, came directly from the hospital to live with us. The next few years were like a gift from the universe, cosmic payback for the pain of the few weeks in 2021 that changed all our lives. Clarence was a role model in business and in life. Every meal together was a master class.

I had spent time with him over the years, heard the stories, witnessed the reverence the world had for Clarence, and met the folks whose lives were impacted by him: Bill Withers, Hank Aaron, Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Andrew Young and countless executives whom he’d created opportunities for and shepherded in his remarkable life and career. He was a man who demanded fairness and justice in a world that was often short on both. He loved music and history and made both. Spending time together in the last years of his life filled a void for me that the loss of my own father had created. I hadn’t been in town when my father departed, but I was in the room when Clarence did. 

Related: Clarence Avant, 'Godfather of Black Entertainment,' Remembered as a 'Visionary and a Transcendent Spirit'

In the last hours of Clarence’s life, he had not been conscious for days. Nicole just knew that he would not make it through the night and that the next day, there would be a lot to do; the business of death comes at you fast. She was at total peace. She had said her goodbyes and was ready. I was so envious of where she was, but I met her there. It was well past midnight. She said goodnight for the last time, asked me not to wake her but to take note of what time he passed away.

Clarence and I did what we loved to do together. We sat and listened to music: Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, all the songs that had been playing for him for days as he slipped away. At about 2:10 a.m. his belabored breathing slowed and became intermittent. I switched up the music, and we listened to “Amazing Grace” by Aretha Franklin and “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen. I took the rosary beads from his hands and recited the prayers out loud.

At 2:29 a.m. he passed over as gently as one could pray for. I had never seen anyone take their last breath, but I felt oddly prepared. Like Nicole in that hospital waiting room, I knew that this was the time for calm. It took everything I had not to wake Nicole, but she knew exactly where she was, and I met her there. 

Related: Clarence Avant, 'Godfather of Black Entertainment' Dead at 92

It has been awe-inspiring to watch my wife navigate life and inspire others. She draws on remarkable experiences, faith, good home training and scripture to get her through and inspire others to do the same. Through her work and through this book, Nicole inspires and motivates in ways that still surprise me. Just when I think she has nothing more to give to me, our kids, her family and her friends, she finds a new gear. I try to keep up. I try to find the same comfort she does. I love where it takes her, and I love to meet her there.

An excerpt from “I’ll Meet You There” by Ted Sarandos, the foreword to Think You’ll Be Happy by Nicole Avant. Copyright Ted Sarandos 2024, reprinted with the author’s permission.

Think You'll Be Happy by Nicole Avant comes out in paperback on Dec. 3 and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.