Sometimes the right words are hard to find, even forOprah Winfrey.
The mogul, who has made a life out of bringing comfort and compassion to others, shares that she struggled with what to say to her mother Vernita before she died in Nov. 2018. Winfreywrote an essay for the May issue ofO, the Oprah Magazinein which she reflects on her upcoming first Mother’s Day without her mom.
Oprah Winfrey with her mom Vernita Lee and sister Patricia.OWN Communications
Winfrey was due to fly back to California the next day but instead canceled her whole slate to be with her mom one last time. Sitting in her living room, the former talk show host still couldn’t come up with the right way to express her feelings.
“I was empty of thoughts and feelings. That night I went to bed and prayed for the right words to come. Words without judgment or a hint of resentment,” she writes. “‘What is my truth?,’ I kept asking. ‘The truth I need to speak to her to bring peace to us both?’ “
After listening to Mahalia Jackson and FaceTiming gospel singer Wintley Phipps so he could sing to her mom one last time, Winfrey finally found the right words.
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Lee died at her home in Milwaukee on Thanksgiving at 83. Winfrey opened up to PEOPLE after her death about sharing that moment and what she learned from it.
“I would say to anybody—and if you live long enough, everybody goes through it—say the things that you need to say while the people are still alive, so that you are not one of those people living with regret about what you would’ve, should’ve, could’ve said,” Winfrey said.
source: people.com
