In the business of survival, one of your greatest strengths is friends. Don't be too proud to ask them for help. I was truely lucky to have so many friends respond when I called them for comfort after Edgar's suicide. Friends like Coral Browne, the English actress and wife of Vincent Price. Always elegantly groomed, Coral drove to my house in her bathrobe the moment she heard the news. There she was, half naked and uncoiffed, offering her love, oblivious to the way she was dressed.
I didn't want to keep singing the blues. Last year I looked at the photos on my piano and realized that it was turning into a memorial Steinway: Edgar, my mother, my father, my Aunt Alice, Edgar's parents, Vincent Price and Coral Browne. Although I got rid of none of those bittersweet photos, I did add many new ones to remind myself that life goes on: a picture of melissa at her college graduation, one of Dorothy on the beach, one of my nephew's adorable children, and one of four friends and me at the Kentucky Derby in colorful hats. Now, instead of depressing me, that piano is a tableau of my life, good times and bad.
The losses of all the people I've loved, from my mother to dear friends like Vincent Price and his wife, Coral Browne, have made me try even harder to let people who are still alive know how much I value them. My mother's death was a poignant reminder to always tell people exactly what they mean to me and to keep my temper in check. Never again will I make the mistake of hanging up the phone angrily on anyone, nor will I let warm feelings go unspoken. At least I do have the comfort of knowing Edgar died aware that I loved him, despite the tough time we were going through.
From: "Still Talking" by Joan Rivers
Throughout the day my suppory group kept arriving. Coral Browne, wife of Vincent Price, heard the news on the radio, and this elegant British actress, never out of her Chanel suit, jumped into her car wearing a bathrobe and slippers and drove over immediately. She was furious with Edgar for doing this to me, but insisted: "All right, darling, you've got to deal with this. You'll get through it."
