LOS ANGELES — In the days since actor James Van Der Beek died at 48 following a battle with stage 3 colorectal cancer, a quiet, intimate tribute from his wife, Kimberly Van Der Beek, has resonated far beyond the family’s private grief: a stripped-down cover of Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want to Wait,” the theme song that helped define Dawson’s Creek and cemented Van Der Beek’s place in late-1990s television history.

The performance, shared as mourning poured in from fans and fellow entertainers, has become a focal point for those processing the loss of an actor whose on-screen work was tightly bound to a generation’s coming-of-age soundtrack. In the original series, Van Der Beek played Dawson Leery, the earnest filmmaker-in-training whose small-town ambitions and relationships carried the WB drama into pop-culture permanence.

While celebrity deaths often trigger a familiar cycle of highlight reels and retrospective quotes, Kimberly Van Der Beek’s musical tribute has been received as something more personal—an attempt to translate the private language of marriage into a public farewell. The Dawson’s Creek theme, with its lyrics about time, uncertainty, and the ache of wanting life to slow down, is an especially pointed choice for a family confronting a diagnosis that Van Der Beek publicly discussed only in the last stretch of his life.

Reports in the days following his death have emphasized the couple’s closeness. Entertainment Weekly described how the pair renewed their wedding vows shortly before his passing, a gesture framed by those close to them as a reaffirmation of commitment during an increasingly difficult period. The couple, who married in 2010, share six children and had built a home life that Van Der Beek regularly referenced as his center of gravity, particularly after the family’s move away from Los Angeles.

The tribute also arrives amid a broader public conversation about early-onset colorectal cancer. The Associated Press, noting Van Der Beek’s death alongside other high-profile cases, has reported that colorectal cancer is increasingly affecting adults under 50—an alarming trend that has pushed medical organizations to stress symptom awareness and recommended screening timelines.

On social media, fans have responded to Kimberly Van Der Beek’s cover by sharing memories of watching Dawson’s Creek during pivotal moments of their own adolescence—first crushes, high school graduations, and the era when appointment television felt communal. The tribute has effectively collapsed the distance between the public and private versions of Van Der Beek: the actor remembered for a signature role, and the husband and father mourned by a family now navigating life without him.

In its simplest form, the cover is a song. In the context of grief, it has become a statement—one that reframes a familiar theme into an elegy, and reminds listeners why Van Der Beek’s work endured: it was always, at its core, about time passing too quickly, and about learning—often painfully—what it costs to grow up.