Whoopi Goldberg has been in the public eye for decades as a comedian, actor, co-host of The View. She's truly one of a kind. What you may not know about her is that behind the scenes, her remarkable mom, Emma and her brother Clyde, were her anchors. Their connection was extraordinarily deep all their lives. Wolf, his mom died in 2010 and her brother, a few years later, their deaths had a profound effect on Whoopi and still do. And she writes incredibly lovingly about them in a new memoir titled Bits and Pieces like My Mother, My Brother and Me. The book is out this week. It is beautiful. I recently spoke to her for a future episode of my podcast, All There Is. The full interview will be available in the next season is released. Not sure when that's going to happen, but soon. But I wanted you to hear some of what they had to say. You wrote. You said after your mom died, you said she'd prepared me for this day, but I would never be ready. I wasn't ready to not be her kid. And you also said it took a while to settle in on me, that my mom's death has been the most devastating experience of my life. It was an acute trauma. I still think about her every single day. Yes. But I figured out because one of the reasons I. I also thought I should write the book is because I didn't think I was responding correctly. And I. I couldn't figure out why. I couldn't figure out why I wasn't more devastated. And then a couple of days ago, I figured it out. A couple of days ago. I figured it out a couple of days ago. There was nothing left unsaid with us. So there was no there was no angst to find. There was that that thing that I've seen in movies where I see people go through. I didn't go through it because my experience was, you know, I adored and loved you and you were the the center of my life. And same with my brother. And we said it to each other all the time. You said, I'm not in any rush to go wherever they went, but a lot of days I'm just sort of walking through it, getting where I need to go and doing what I need to do. I had no clue that things would change so dramatically for me once they were gone. Was I so tethered to my mom and brother that I can't find my own bearing? It feels that way. They were my home base, my reality check, because they both knew me from the start. And you also said it's not like either one could have done anything about dying. But from time to time, I feel like, Why did you all leave me here? Yeah, I asked that I. Yeah, Yeah. But the answer to that is because we have stuff we got to get done, that's why. And we're not supposed to. This is not our time. It's not our time. We got kids and grandkids, and they need to know us. They need. They need to know us. That's why it's my belief, you know? But yeah, that I find myself asking that question like, Yeah. Yeah. Why did you leave me? There were three of us. I also realized when I ask that, that it's very much it's the question. Like the ten year old me, he's asking you. It's like the angry question of a hardhearted child of like, why did you leave? Yeah. No. And. And I once flirted once flirted with thinking about leaving. And then I thought how? What a terrible thing that would be to do to my kids, to knowingly do to my kid who actually likes me, you know? Yeah. She's a really good person and a fine woman, and she's raised she and her husband have raised three fine, very bizarre children. And why would you do that to them? Why would you leave them with that? So, yeah. And not. Yeah. Yeah, I'm glad. Yeah, me too. I think. You know, when somebody dies, people don't know what to say. And I, I, I've been doing this podcast. I still don't know what to say a lot of times, but I'm better at it now. But what did you you write in the book about writing to people and what do you say to people when when, when you have a friend who lost a loved one? Well, I say, you know, no one no one who hasn't lost this way can understand. So you can't be mad at them for not saying the right thing because even you don't know what the right thing is. So just let people love you. Let them come in, love you, and just appreciate that they they're not going to know what you're feeling. You're not going to get they can't read your mind, but know that all of these things are going to be coming at you and you're going to get really pissed off because you why are you you know, why are you talking to me like this? It's because they don't know what to say, you know? So I just recommend saying I'm so sorry and hug somebody for write them a note. Say, I, I don't know how to deal with this because it's never happened to me. Be honest. With people. Goldberg is amazing. I love her and her book is lovely and remarkable. If you think you know her and if you like her and you think you know her, there's a lot you can learn about her That's extraordinary. That's in this book. And her amazing, amazing mom, Emma, who was it sounds a lot like my mom.
