Thank you for being a friend...

January 2022--While walking down an aisle in the grocery store Friday, I heard my phone ping. It was a text message saying Betty White passed away.

I stood still staring at the phone re-reading the message. My initial thought was it couldn’t be true. Of course, I knew she couldn’t live forever but I was still shocked by the news. And saddened. I must have made quite a face because a woman passing by asked if I was ok. I told her Betty White just died. She got a look of shock on her face, too.

Another woman overheard us talking about our memories of Sue Ann Nivens and Rose Nylund and began expressing her disbelief. “Just a few more weeks and she would have made it to her 100th birthday,” the other woman said.

Before I knew it, there was a small group of women gathered in the frozen food section all reminiscing about her long and wonderful career that also included her most recent character Elka Ostrovsky in Hot in Cleveland.

None of us knew each other, yet there was this common thread—we all loved Betty White and we were all saddened to hear of her passing. Our conversation kept going and the number of us gathered kept growing. Everyone throwing in their feelings about the loss of a woman we all felt was a friend. We laughed as we shared some of our favorite scenes from her many shows. As we parted ways—I had to get going because I was sure my husband was getting ready to call out the National Guard to find me—we ended our impromptu meeting by telling everyone it was nice talking to them and wished each other a Happy New Year.

Betty White did so much good in her lifetime, and now even in her death, she continued to do good. She brought together a group of complete strangers who after 25 minutes of talking felt like we had all known each other a lifetime.

I do remember Betty White’s character in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, but not nearly as much as I remember her in The Golden Girls, a show I watched faithfully and continued to watch every night after my Hallmark movie ended. I laughed just as hard at the reruns as I did when watching the original broadcasts.

Rose Nylund was a character that could relate to so many on so many levels. She was kind, compassionate and caring, down-to-earth and a great storyteller. I have never been to St. Olaf, Minnesota, but she told so many stories about her hometown, I felt like I knew it well. When she’d start her story with, “Back in St. Olaf…..” Blanche, Dorothy and Sophia might have rolled their eyes, but I sat at full attention knowing I was going to enjoy the story. And she never disappointed.

I was so focused on Rose Nylund that I never really took the time to realize just all Betty White had accomplished in her 99 years on Earth. She was born in Oak Park, Illinois, and was one of the first female producers in Hollywood, starred in numerous TV shows and made appearances in many TV movies. Known as the Queen of Television, she earned several Emmy nominations and was the first woman to win a Daytime Emmy Award in the category of outstanding game show hosts. She was a huge animal lover, and her voice could be heard in dozens of TV series and movies. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, right next to that of her late husband, Allen Ludden. She once said she didn’t know what Facebook was, and “now that I do know what it is, I have to say it sounds like a huge waste of time.”

If given an opportunity to say just two words to Betty White, I think my two words would be "thank you." Thank you for the wisdom, the foresight, the talents shared with millions, the compassion shown toward human beings as well as animals, the ability to make people laugh and the wonderful outlook on life. And, as the theme song touted, thank you for being a friend.

Betty White had been quoted so many times throughout her lifetime, and there is one that really stands out for me.

“It’s your outlook on life that counts. If you take yourself lightly and don’t take yourself too seriously, pretty soon you can find the humor in our everyday lives. And sometimes it can be a lifesaver.”

So true, Betty, so true.

Take it one day at a time...

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