Filed under: Cancer
From Parent Dish: "The Oprah Winfrey Show" found my family through a connection at the Cancer Wellness Center in suburban Chicago, a place where we had received amazing support. The producers were putting together a segment on death and dying and we -- my father, 11-year-old sister Kate and I -- were asked to share the story of our recent loss with renowned psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and a then-unknown author on death and dying, Mitch Albom. And, oh, about 7.4 million others.
It's hard to say, given Oprah's massive celebrity, whether the subsequent dozen or so airings of our story over the years was truly a product of Oprah herself being profoundly moved or some opportunistic producers who knew good material when they saw it. But the truth remains that my younger sister's smiley, confident disposition in the face of our loss, coupled with my raw vulnerability, made for some pretty fantastic television. (Read more)
It's hard to say, given Oprah's massive celebrity, whether the subsequent dozen or so airings of our story over the years was truly a product of Oprah herself being profoundly moved or some opportunistic producers who knew good material when they saw it. But the truth remains that my younger sister's smiley, confident disposition in the face of our loss, coupled with my raw vulnerability, made for some pretty fantastic television. (Read more)