Updated May 14, 2026 — 11:36am , first published May 14, 2026 — 9:36am After being given a terminal cancer diagnosis earlier this year, Valentine told a gathering of family and friends that he wanted his last days to be full of joy and laughter. “I started to think about the way in which death was so often a time of bitterness, of anger, of regret, shaking your fist at the universe or your god and going, ‘what the hell is going on here?’ I don’t want that,” he said during a living wake that was filmed for an emotional episode of ABC’s Australian Story. The late James Valentine, as he appeared in ABC TV’s Australian Story. Tom Hancock/Australian Story “I want my last days to be full of joy and happiness and laughter and jokes and humour – all the things I’ve loved through life.” ABC Radio presenter Craig Reucassel said on Thursday morning that Valentine wished for his memorial to be public.…