One of my favourite actors died yesterday. Mary Tyler Moore. I loved the old Dick Van Dyke show when she would utter, “Ohhhhhh Rooooooobb!”. She deserved the Oscar for her role in “Ordinary People”. It was a character so distant from her Laura Petrie character that you just knew what a fabulous actress she was.
My very favourite role, however, was Mary Richards, the spunky single woman who was executive producer of a television newsroom in Minneapolis. “She could turn the world on with a smile” as the opening song stated, as she took off her very stylish tam and threw it in the air. I loved that show and wanted to be Mary Richards when I grew up. I really believe that her feminist character helped shape me. I felt that I could do anything.
My life didn’t turn out like Mary Richards. I got married at 22 and by 29 I had two daughters. I’m not in any way unhappy with these facts. I knew that whatever life threw at me I would be fine, like Mary Richards. It’s a reliance I’ve always had. Even when Justine was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and died in a car accident, I knew I would survive in tact. I just knew it.
I knew I was gonna make it after all.
Cathy Lynn Brooks 
How sad to read – I would have missed this, but for you, so thanks. She was one of my personal favs as well – for several reasons.
For a diabetic, she had an amazingly long run — although, unlike many whom diabetes takes much earlier, I’m sure she had the funds for *excellent* health care. As a spokesperson for the disease, I’m also fairly certain she kept her levels under strict control.
For most of his short life, my brother Michael could – seemingly – eat and drink anything he wanted as long as he kept the insulin handy — until he couldn’t. Diabetes enacted its revenge before he was even 30 years old: blind (retinopathy), missing toes (gangrene) and severe depression. He was taken from us WAY too soon.
My sister Jaye lived long enough to reach her goal of two healthy pregnancies, seeing her boys through to young adulthood before diabetes claimed her life as well. The official dx was cancer, but the treatment for that disease had to be halted several times when her diabetes spun out of control. She was winning the war against breast cancer for many years prior, but the cessation of treatment allowed it to metastasize to bone. She was taken in her 50s, but not before diabetes left her with EIGHT heart stents. In her last heart disease surgery – at NYC’s Memorial Sloane Kettering – EVERY SINGLE PERSON on the heart floor at that time was a diabetic.
My apologies for making a sad post sadder, but I’m sure Mary is smiling down as I inform any of your readers who are not already aware: DIABETES is a pernicious disease that is NO WHERE NEAR being controlled by current treatment protocols.
Cut waaay back on the sugar, and watch your weight, everybody. Being overweight increases the possibility of developing Type II diabetes considerably – and you do NOT want to go there.
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMore dot com)
– ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder –
“It takes a village to educate a world!”
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The real Mary Tyler Moore made it after all, and so did you!
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Great!😭
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Thank you for your post. Mary Taylor Moore was one of my favorite actresses and a great inspiration to me when I lived on my own in New York City. Every job interview, every step that I took during those challenging times, I remembered her throwing her hat in the air, “You’re going to make it after all.”
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That’s so wonderful! How exciting and challenging that time must have been.
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Oh, yes. Definitely worth a coffee hour or five of stories. In general, I find most New Yorkers interesting and wonderful to know.
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I ❤NY
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Loved Mary Tyler Moore. I don’t know any way a person could be negatively affected by her.
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That’s true! She was such a light!
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