Wednesday, July 23, 2008

A friend

I cannot tell you how many hours I spent watching “The Golden Girls" while growing up. I can't tell you because I'm not sure I can count that high. There was a period years ago where that – and “The Wizard of Oz” – was all all my little sister would watch. She watched them 24-hours a day, 7-days a week. I'm sure had she been able to somehow bend the space-time continuum, she'd have happily watched them even more.

So, like it or not, I watched along. And most of the time I liked it. I really, really liked it. Never mind that the women were generations older than me. They were saucy and smart, brash and beyond taking any bullshit. Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia were like everyone's dream grandmothers, and great-grandmothers. They were the queens of snark before everyone was snarky. And the smallest but the snarkiest was always Sophia.

Later, in college and as an adult, I came to appreciate the Girls on a whole other level. Who among us has not had that conversation with their gay boyfriends about who was which “Girl?” No big surprise, I was always pegged a Dorothy. But it took someone very special to be a Sophia. It took a tiny force of nature. And, to be perfectly honest, no one could ever compare to the amazing Ms. Estelle Getty. The woman could sling the one-liners with the best of them. So the news yesterday of her passing at age 84 left a hole as big as she was tiny in my heart. I'm going to sit down and have a slice of cheesecake in her honor today. Grab a fork and join me around the kitchen table, won't you.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

estelle, thank you for many hours of laughter!

;) babs

Anonymous said...

Golden Girls is very likely the best TV-show ever. In our "who is who" game I was always Dorothy. Nobody wanted to be Rose. :)

Rest in peace, Estelle.

The Gentleman said...

Absolute comedy gold.
And it's amazing how after all this years the humour and the snark are still intact.

Estelle, may you rest in peace.

Anonymous said...

watching the golden girls was like seeing my grandmas, aunt and mom together. with estelle's passing, i miss my grandmas more than ever.

estelle,
thank you for all your wisdom.
rest in peace.

Slym said...

Learn the sad news as I was skimming thru channels on my way to watching Family Guy last evening.

Estelle was truly golden. May she rest in peace.

*pass the fork*

Anonymous said...

she will always remind me of a great time in my life. gracias..

speedy12 said...

I grew up with these four lovely women..Estelle mos def being the sarcastic matriarch of the quad. A peace of my heart died with her yesterday...I truly loved this talented ageless woman...Thank you Estelle for bringing laughter into our homes, into our minds, into our hearts...Thank You For Being A Friend. :-)

Anonymous said...

Vale Estelle. 'Picture it: 2008 - a world without Sophia'... not a good picture. RIP.

Anonymous said...

I watched in it's original run and since I've been off for the summer I watch it on Lifetime at 9am, 4pm and 1am.

FYI: In honor of Ms. Getty, Lifetime will be running a 5 hour marathon on Friday.

Anonymous said...

It was a sad day indeed. "picture it, Sicily 1927" Hahaha! I was surprised to hear that she was actually the same age as all of the other ladies on the show!

Invertir en petroleo said...

Hello, i wanna congratulate you for this post, i consider that has good information and is nice to read it.

Buy Cialis said...

This is perfect seeing these old women in here because they look really cute, actually they reminded me to my grandmother.