February 20, 2024 • 46 mins
Rosie's guest this week is the one and only, Linda Richman. Linda is part of the cultural zeitgeist; the hilarious, Barbra-obsessed, Saturday Night Live "Coffee Talk" character, ('I'm fahrklempt, talk amongst yourselves'), Linda Richmond.
And for Rosie, Linda has been a stand-in mother; a grandmother to her son Parker; and the hilarious sage Rosie turns to in just about every situation life brings her, for over 28 years!
Tune in to their tête-tête and hear how both Linda and Rosie turned their heartbreak and grief into a lifelong friendship of trust, wisdom, laughter, as well as antics with their beloved Barbra.Linda's Bestseller Book "I'd Rather Laugh: How To Be Happy Even When Life Has Other Plans For You" (with a foreword by Rosie O'Donnell)
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Well, hi, everybody, I am here with Linda Richmond. Linda Richmond,
how are you? Linda?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm great. I'm very excited being here.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
You look really good.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
No work yet? What do you mean, no facelift?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I don't believe you. You had a facelift at like forty,
didn't you, or something? Something ridiculously young?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Right, yes, before the damage came in.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Exactly when you were looking perfect. That's what you decided
you needed a face. When you go tell the people
how old you are, Linda, I'm I will be eighty
three next month. I don't even know what month anymore. Yeah,
but you're going to be eighty three?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Can you believe that?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
No? I can't believe it. I'm shocked by it. I
wish I had some advice for people who are turning
into their eighties, and there is no advice. You just cry.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, you fought it hard. You did not like your
eightieth birthday. We were there for a big party. You
hated the party. Yeah, why because you're not a party person.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I love fun, but I didn't want to be the
settler of saying, yes, she's eighty how wonderful?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Right? Right?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
And now I'm turning eighty three, right, and I'm praying
my daughter doesn't make me anything.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
No, I'm sure she'll do something.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Oh a light, you know, chicken dinner.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Linda's daughter is one of my closest friends, Robin Juzanne,
and we kind of.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Met through her, and we did meet through her.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah. I met Robin on a plane going to New York.
And I was about to adopt a baby. And I
said to Robin, oh, where do you live? Was right
close to where I lived, and I said, next week,
I'm getting a baby, and over you came and you
never left.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Well, it's not my memory of the story.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Tell the story.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
The story is Robin met you on a clane. Yeah,
I really never heard of you. I'm sorry, that's okay.
And I lived across town from you in New York,
in New York, yes, and by this time I knew
you know who you were, but I never saw a
movie or anything.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Right, And you had asked, Robin, do you think your
mother would babysit for me? Because I don't have a
nanna yet?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Right? Because I was just starting my show and I
had Parker who was in diapers and hadn't yet walked.
He was still crawling.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
He was three months old.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Yeah, he was a tiny little thing, and I didn't
know who I could ask to come, baby said, So
I said to Robin, would your mother ever want to
just hang out here at night? The baby will be
asleep and I just have to go. I think it
was the Emmys. Was it the Emmys?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I don't remember the occasion.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, yeah, but you came over and you did it.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I did it, and he was like a piece of gold.
He never cried.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Missus Parker, who's now twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I know, right, And he was a doll and it
was lovely. And I remember this. You won't remember, but
it tickled the hell out of me. You asked him charged, Oh,
I own my own business. I was self supporting, and
I said, I don't charge anything. So the next day,
(03:34):
one day later, I get a phone call from Rosie.
Do you think that you could help me out? I
still don't have a nanny, right, would you watch him
another night? And I said sure when she said tonight,
and I said fine. And he was fussy that I remember,
he was fussy, But I had two children. I knew
(03:57):
what to do. Sure, And I went into his room
and he had a couch in his rooms, right, And
I sat on the couch until he and I talked
to him until he fell asleep because a lot of
people get bored when I keep talking. And he went
to sleep. And I don't remember ever leaving your house
(04:19):
for the next two years.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
And a half years. Linda literally moved in to my
house on Broadway in sixty fifth Street, and we lived
there for about two and a half years. Then you
helped me with him, and you were the grandmother that
he didn't have. And it's a beautiful, beautiful relationship.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It's he's still He's still in my heart. I mean
when he comes out here and I see him. For
those of you who aren't Jewish, I killed, which means
I burst with pride, Yeah, because I feel like I
had a part in well you did bringing up this child. Well,
Rosie moved again, but she moved to a fancy Schmanz
(04:59):
house hell in Hayes Estate. Yes, but of course she
never tells you what she's going to do. She just
does it. Will you wake up in another place?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, I wake up and go. I have an idea,
let's go. Yeah. But when I met you, wasn't it
How long after your son, Jordan, had died in a
car accident. Was it shortly after or no, No, it
was years.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Well, he died when he was twenty twenty nine, so
which made me do the math somebody I don't know.
He was born when I was twenty right, so I
had to be in my thirties maybe early forties, right,
(05:43):
And you know, a baby meant nothing in terms of
can I care for this baby? Everyone in love with him?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Of course, of course.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
You know. And but Rosie had this habit of not
telling me what company she was getting.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well, I never thought I had to say, oh, so
and so Star is coming. I would just invite my
friends over and then afterwards you would be like, what
didn't you tell me It was Katie Burk, you know?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Or the best one was Madonna, that's right, because she
was at the height of her career. Yes, yes, and
she gets out of a limo and I said to myself,
that looks like Madonna and she gets out with her
nanny and I went, oh god, that is Madonna. Yes,
And I remember sitting and having one sch at Rosie's
(06:29):
and Madonna was just Madonna.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Now, but you had been around famous people because Robin
was at one time married to Mike Myers, who created
Linda Richmond Coffee Talk YEP, which is based on you
totally and you'll love for Barbara streisand totally, which is
how you and I connected initially. Yes, right, I think
we are the two biggest fans in the world.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, and I think she knows it, Yeah, she does.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And I never you know, I never miss a birthday,
I never miss an event. Let's talk the book. What
do you think of that book?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
It was boring and brilliant.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Boring?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
It was boring and brilliant because.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Do you think it was boring to you because we
know everything?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (07:12):
I think people who aren't as avid fans, right, they
maybe heard stories they didn't know of. But you and
I kind of we knew a lot of things that
were in.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
There, Like we knew more than Barbara.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Think that scare her, let's not say that, but yeah, no,
we knew a lot of the story of her life
because you know it was really the whole reason I
became a performer was because of her.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Well, I didn't become a performer, I just became a
crazy fan. I remember hearing a story from her that
she had a contentious relationship with a mother, yes, and
you didn't have a mother, And I had a contentious
relationship with.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
My mother, and you didn't have a father.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
My father had died. He was my father was killed
in a car crash. It runs in the family, obviously,
And no one told me he was dead until I
was a teenage, late teenage, So.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
For over a decade, no one mentioned his name.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
No, and I wasn't allowed to ask how old.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Were you when he died? Eight? You were eight? Until
you were like in college or senior in high school.
Nobody really even And what did you imagine, Linda, What
did you think happened?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I thought, well, I had a as I said, I
had a difficult relationship with my mother, so I figured
he left her. Oh, and he met somebody else who
was fun and frolicky, and he was off having a
great time. So even though I was confused, yeah, I
(08:48):
was happy for him.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Oh that's so interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
And I never told a soul what was going on
in my head. Yeah, so nobody ever spoke of him.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Now, what happened to me? A couple of times after
my died, as somebody would call like solicitors, you know,
which at the time when they knew it was a kid,
They'd say, is your mommy home? And I remember having
such panic and I said, she's in the shower. And
I hung up because I couldn't get myself to say
that she had died. It wasn't until I was a
(09:17):
college freshman that my roommate said to me, how come
you never talk about your mother? And I was like,
I guess it's now or another you know, And I said, oh,
my mother died when I was ten, And it was
the first time I ever told anyone that.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Well, I never said that he was dead because I
didn't know, right, I didn't know. But that also bonded
me with Barbara. Yes, her father died. I think he
was I think she was six months old or something.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, she was an infant. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And when I met her, I said, you know, I
told her I was the most disgusting person in the world.
I said, I'm the biggest fan. I had been invited
to her concert in Vegas, right, and she only wanted
to speak to me, which I loved. And we sat
(10:10):
and we talked. We talked about my father, we talked
about my mother was not a mother and her mind.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
She had a lot of mental illness.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I had a lot of mental illness. Yes, Barbara's mother
was just mean to her. Yeah, it seems so jealous.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So unsupportive. I mean, so maybe jealous of her talent. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Well I spoke to the mother really yeah. At the event,
I figured, you know, this is the woman who created
my idol, right too. And I walked over to her.
I said, hello, I'm Linda. I didn't even use my
last name. I didn't. I didn't want her to think
I was a jerk, but I was being jerky. Yeah, yeah,
(10:53):
And I said, you have created a masterpiece. And she said,
did you have a here me sing?
Speaker 1 (11:01):
No?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
She did, nice, God is my witness, that's what she said.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Where on earth would you have heard her mother sing?
I mean, how could she ask that? Where would you
have heard her sing in shule com on now? I
mean she wasn't known to have a singing voice.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Right at all? Not at all? And I said, I know,
I'm sad that I never got a chance to hear
you sing, but I'm sure you have a beautiful voice.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
But I told you all you needed to know.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
It's all I needed to know. And then Barbara and
I bonded. I didn't tell her what her mother said.
Of course that would have been cruel. But we talked
about our family and our parents, and we talked a
lot about fathers, because I lost mine, she lost her.
And I remember having this conversation that she brought up
(11:51):
and she said something about her father and I said
that I didn't even know my father was dead. Yeah,
I said, he was argued a place cold and I
don't even remember the name of the place. Now. She goes,
that's where my father is.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And I said to her, I go there like once
a month. Do you want me to visit your father?
She said yes, And I said something that I will
never regret, but I said it. I said, it would
be my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
The things that come out of your mouth. But how
long did it take you to go? Like I am
talking to Barbara Streis and like for me to this
day still it still echoes in my head when I'm
anywhere near her, that is her People sometimes say how
often do you see Barbara Streis? And I'm like, never, ever, never.
(12:44):
I send her flowers On April twenty.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Fourth, you know, but you went to our house, yes.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
To interview her. I went to her house a couple.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Times I was jealous and I remember that. I remember,
but I don't keep that a secret.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, well, was there anyone besides Barbara for you? Was
it always and only her? Like you know what? Was
she the guiding light? The north Star?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
She was it? When I was growing up, like teenageys,
I became a you should excuse that, became a dancer,
a Latin American dancer up in the Catskill Mountains.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Okay, So I.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Met Buddy Hacket and a Sid Caesar and people, and
I thought, I have the life. Boy, there don't get
better than this. Robbic Ulay, oh stop, rabbit Lay stopped
his show to talk to me. He said, are you okay?
(13:41):
I went no. He said, would you like me to
come down to you know, into the the audience and
say hello to you? And I went yes, And he
came down, kissed me on the cheek, and I thought,
nothing is ever going to be the same for me.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, you know, it's so weird the role that entertainers
played in your life and played in my life too.
It was like it was like a ladder up out
of the darkness. You climb and climb and climb. Every time,
Like I heard streisan or saw a movie or a
record came out. It was like a new burst of
endorphins for me. You know, anything she did, anything she
(14:23):
does still totally fascinates and interests me.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
You know, well, you know I was agoraphobic.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I do know that for many, many, very.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Many years, which meant I stayed home. I never left
my house ever ever.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
And you also stayed in your bedroom. Mostly.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I stayed in my bedroom and I had the TV on,
and if she was going to be on, I was there.
But I also had a record player, and I had
someone had people running errands for me to give me
albums of her, and I could listen to her all day.
(14:59):
And in my mind, I swear to anyone who's listening
to this, I am normal. And I have like five
therapists who agree. They all said, you're normal.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
They want me to give those names because I'm not
going to no. Uh yeah, you normal in terms of
your love for her, or normal.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
In terms my love for her was unimaginable. Yes, you know,
I'd be depressed and then I'd put on a record.
You heard the word record and old tells you how
old I am, and I would just be elated and
I would just go from depression to happiness, and then
(15:42):
I would pretend. But I knew I was crazy when
I did this. Yeah, I would pretend that Barbara and
I had lunch together.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
I did that all the time. Good, are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
No? Why do why we get along?
Speaker 1 (15:53):
No? I would sit on my bathroom and I would
pop my little pimples and I would talk to Barbara
streisand and Johnny Carson like I was the next game.
Oh you know, so I turn and I'd say, yes, Barbara,
so Johnny, Like that was my fantasy, my delusion. I
talked to her a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
You know, I spent years doing that. Yeah's Barbara. And
I'm telling you, when I met her, I thought I
died and went to heaven. And she looked different in
the sense that she was prettier than anybody had ever seen.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
I think she's the most gorgeous woman that I've ever
seen in my life. Here in what's up? Doc?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Gorgeous? Oh my god, gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Right. Hello, she'll take that off at the end. Hello, daddy. Uh. Yeah,
there's there's nothing that I have no negative thing to
say about her, even knowing her. Being around her, people
say and she said to me, don't meet your idols.
I'll never be able to live up to what you
have in your head. But you know what she lived
(16:57):
up to and beyond my wildest dreams of her.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Right, well, she yes, she did something for me that
amazed me. My son also loved her, right my whole
house loved her.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
But you were always playing it in your bedroom exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
She asked me if I wanted a picture with her.
I would never ask her if for anything, and I said, yes,
I would, And she took this picture. And the next
day she came back and in a frame was a
picture of me and Barbara, and she wrote something about
my son. She said, I hope Jordan's happy where he is.
(17:38):
And I looked at her and I said, how do
you do it? She said, what did I do? I said,
you did a mitzvah. For those of you listening, that
means a good deed. And I thought that was the
kindest thing ever. I said, and let me ask you something.
This is how brilliant I was. I said that you
(18:00):
go to the mall to get a frame. She goes, no,
I have people who do that.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
What do you think? She was in bedbath and beyond
looking for something cream colored. No, that did not happen.
We'll be back with MORELANDA. Richmond after this. Now, you
(18:38):
not only have you lived through some ups and downs
like every eighty three year old almost would do right
has done in their life, but you, you know, you
took like grief and you made a book I'd rather laugh.
And you ended up going to Canyon Ranch and lecturing
people on the grief of losing a child or grief
(19:03):
in general grief. And how did that whole book and
how did that switch take place?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Well, I went to a therapist. I needed a therapist
at this point, you know, as the years went on,
I was going downhill and Robin, my daughter, said to me,
there's a therapist there. His name is Dan Baker. You
should see him. I said, I'm not seeing another therapist.
(19:29):
I'm done. I'm not going. And she said, Ma.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
You need to go.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
You need to just go. So I made an appointment
and I go into his office. He's wearing jeans, a
cowboy hat, a cowboy shirt, boots, and I'm thinking, I'm
a jew from New York and I'm going to this guy.
He knows cowboys, he knows nothing. And I went into
(19:59):
his office this and we started talking and he asked
me a bunch of questions and I was charming. Sure,
you know, playing the game charge? Yeah, oh yeah, that
was the biggie. And he said, can I say something
to you? I said yes. He said, I think you're
(20:22):
full of shit. I said, excuse me?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
He said, you have covered up all your pain with humor,
he said, And there are a lot of things that
you should cry about that you're laughing at, he said,
because it doesn't hurt to laugh. And he was my doctor,
and this is how we went. I said, I don't
(20:48):
want therapy. I've been to four thousand therapists. He goes, no,
this is not going to be regular therapy. And what
we did is we went to the swimming pool and
we had we had sessions in the pool.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Wow, And what did that? What was that? What did
that do? It just made it not the stagnancy of
an office.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I didn't feel I was mentally ill hm because all
those years that after my son died, it was like.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Dark and confused.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Everything is dark and confusing. And then I lost my sister. Yes,
and that was that was a huge hit for me.
She raised me basically yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
She was like fifteen years older than you.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
She was god almost ten ten years old.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah, and I loved her. She was great fun. My
knew were in Florida and you guys were like the
Bobbsey twins. You were like, you know, separated never right, absolutely,
And then she got sick and sadly died of cancer. Correct, right.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And I was so crazy, And I kind of loved
to tell this story because when someone dies, you do
know how you're going to react. Course, what I did
is I lived in the next building from her in
Florida at this time, and every morning I went to
her house and made soup. Now, I am one of
(22:16):
the worst cooks that you'll ever meet. I can vouch
for that. And I decided that the soup was going
to cure her until one day after she had chemo
or radiation or something. She said, I love you so much.
(22:36):
And I said, I love you so much. She goes,
I know, but love me less. You're killing me. She said,
your soups are the worst soups I've never had in
my whole life.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
And that's what's making me sick. Right right.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
So, at any rate, I had a lot of a
lot of stuff in my body, a lot of pain.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
And you never really did work out the stuff with
your dad, or did you with that therapist as well?
The grief of losing your dad and then not being
told that he had passed.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Well, he just said to me, that's crazy, that's crazy.
Your mother was ill right and didn't know how to
handle it. Yeah, so they made believe that he didn't
exist because I never heard the word dad.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
No. Same with us. You never heard mommy in our
house again, and it was almost like a terrifying word
to say. Right. And I remember my aunt Minnie, who
had stayed with us for a little while after, who
was my father's brother's Hawaiian wife, and she sometimes would
set an extra place setting at the table by mistake,
(23:42):
and it was just this horrible silent movie of her
realizing it and trying to pick up the plate and
move it back to the cabinet. But I noticed everything,
you know, so it was like we're aren't allowed to
say it, but the evidence of her absence was visible everywhere, you.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Know, I know that feeling right. You know, people would
never talk about the word father, let alone having a father, right,
you know, until I was god, I was getting married
so I was eighteen or nineteen.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Oh, my Godlindon nineteen you got married.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
I learned, I was body trained and I got married.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Oh god, no, what is that what everybody did? Then
you got out of high school? You got married?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yeah, and I married a very nice man. But I
shouldn't have gotten married.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Well, who can get married at eighteen? That's so young.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I wanted a baby. I wanted a baby very badly.
And my firstborn was my son, right, who ultimately was
killed in a car access Yes. And my father had
been killed in a car truck truck accident. Yeah, And
I thought to myself at that time it must have
(25:02):
been written that way, right, So I'm not going to
feel anything at all at all. And luckily I became
pregnant during during that time and gave birth to an
angel in disguise, and I put everything that I had
(25:25):
into her, and which sent her into therapy for a
lot of years. You know, you can't fill a hole.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
With another with another person, especially another wounded sibling, you know.
I mean, how old was she, George?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
She was in her twenties. In her twenties, yeah, you know,
and she had her wounds, and but I was I
was the I always thought of myself as the queen
of depression and misery and unhappiness, and I gave it
easily to everybodybody else right, you know, and with an
(26:03):
outside that looked happy.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Well, that's the thing is that you're funny. You know.
People think it's butter, it's coffee talk. They think of comedy,
and you know, I know that you did really profound
work with the book and with all the grieving that
you helped so many people that you know it probably
was life altering for you.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
It was life altering because people would come up to
me after a lecture and say, you've changed my life,
and I go, how m And they would tell me
and I go, I did that. And there was a
very famous person that I'll tell you later who came
up to me who said, I've been diagnosed as bipolar,
(26:45):
which I didn't even know what bipolar was at that point.
He said, and you're an important person and I said
I am. He said, you didn't know that. I said, no,
You've made a big change in me. Whether I can
hold on to it, I don't know sure, he said,
(27:07):
but you've made a big change. And then a girl
came up to me, a young girl I'm still friendly with,
and she we just started talking. She said, my father
just died. And I looked at her and I said,
I'm so sorry. I said, you know it's your father
(27:27):
and I'm not going to use his name, and she said, yes,
how do you know? I said, you have every mannerism
of his.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Was a famous I know, the child of someone famous.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
And with still friends?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
How about that?
Speaker 2 (27:44):
And she calls me, and she calls me at least
once a month. She called me this time and she said,
I haven't heard from you in a while. And I said,
I had surgery and I didn't feel like talking on
the phone. I'm sorry as short of emailed you. And
(28:05):
she said, you can make no mistakes with Migland.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
That's sweet, that's sweet. Well, you have touched so many people.
You have so many people in your life that really
care about you and that you're invested, and I mean,
I think it's why you're doing so well in terms
of your age and your cognition. And you're you know,
you're you're fully active in loving people. You're not so
(28:30):
active in getting up and around and moving. You know
that's something that you know, do you think that's something
that can change.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
At eighty three, well, I'm sitting next to my physical
therapy yes exactly, yells at me daily, right for not
getting off my as they say in French, tookus.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yes, without getting off your ass to move around. But
do you think that there could be a change in that?
Do you think at eighty three you're kind of like, well,
this is how I am and I'm not going to
change it, because like today, you didn't have the wheelchair
coming in, you didn't have the canes coming in, you
have you just you know, you're you're doing much better
than you had been.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
I also, if I fell or couldn't make the steps,
I wouldn't be embarrassed in front of you. Oh right, right,
because we lived together for so long. Yeah, yes exactly.
But if you were having company, I would probably take
the wheelchair in and and and I'd be happy.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yeah, you know, at least they knew I wouldn't fall.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
More with Linda after this, how much do you think
(29:55):
our relationship is based on my needing a mother and
you needing a child?
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Time I do too.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
I think it's shared, right.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Oh, definitely shared. I remember you had an accident in Florida,
and you caut uh. Yeah, fishing a fishing thing, fishing.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
I cut off the price tag of a fishing pole
and it like severed everything in my hand.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
And I heard about it, and I was living in
Florida and I flew down there. When I say flew,
I mean by carr uh. And I wasn't allowed in
the room. And I cried. I cried like a baby.
I said, I have to see her. Yeah, if she's
(30:42):
where my brain was, if she sees me, she's going
to be a right.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
And it's true.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
What's illusion is that I believe it's true.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
How about when I had my heart attack and I
called you up? You want to you want to tell
that story? You tell this is a good story. I
had had a heart attack on a Monday morning and
went home and was feeling really bad. And I was
in my art studio with Blakey and I called Linda
and I said, Linda, do you think this anyway? I
could have had a heart attack? And what did you say?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I said, what are the symptoms?
Speaker 1 (31:16):
And I had all of them?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
You had all of them. And I said, get to
the hospital now. That's right, no matter what it is,
you should be seen now.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
But I was not thinking right really, and I waited
another day a half. Yeah, I went to a doctor
on Wednesday at four pm when I had had a
heart attack Monday at nine am.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Yeah. Oh, I I was so angry with you. I know,
I didn't want you to die either, you know, and
like I couldn't make headway with you.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
No, But I was, like I was fifty, and I thought,
a heart attack has to feel more painful than this,
Like my arm's hurt really, really badly. But I had
helped a woman get out of a car, and so
I had helped her and it took longer and my
arms were hurting, and I don't know what I thought.
I thought, how could this be a heart attack? How
(32:14):
could this be? But I was very lucky because the
doctor said I had like a half an hour more
and that would have been that.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
I couldn't imagine you not knowing it was a heart attack.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Right, I think part of me knew, but part of
me was, you know, here's the stupid thing. This is
what women do. Women sometimes worry about other people who
aren't even in the equation. Like I was thinking, if
I call the ambulance, what if there's a car accident
and somebody really needs that ambulance and this isn't a
heart attack after all, then I would have caused the
(32:45):
death of a young kid in a car accident because
I wasted the ambulance. That's where I was.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
You know, anyone listening to this right now knows who
Rosie is, because that's what she'll do. She'll put her
life aside so that somebody else who doesn't even exist
gets care before her.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Right That's when my brain goes through. It's like, you know,
don't be selfish and take this when someone else could
need that, you know, And I mean it's a way
that women often treat themselves lest in a family. When
you're the mother, you take care of your kids first,
and you know, you don't put yourself first oftentimes, I
(33:28):
think when you're a mom, and I was deep into
mom mode at that point. You know, not that I've
ever gotten out.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Of what day? What day does you leave?
Speaker 1 (33:38):
I'm still in it. I'm still in it. Yeah, But
I think that our relationship has been very healing for
me and having lost my mom and to have you
for you know, the time that I missed my mother
the most is when they handed me Parker, and I
remember thinking, God, I wish I had my mom here
to help me because you're scared, and he was premi
(34:01):
and he was tiny, and and then not two days later,
ding dong, care for what you wish for?
Speaker 2 (34:07):
But you just said something that he was healing, Yeah,
your mother. And then I get a phone call, will
you watch Rosie's son after I've lost my son?
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Right?
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Right? I didn't care if it was Rosio. I didn't
even know who Rose O'Donnell was. Right, I didn't care
if it was Mary Smith. You have a son and
he's in, you know, in the condition that that Parker was,
which was a pre meiate. Right, of course I'm going
to watch it.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Yeah, yeah, so yeah, But it made it made it
so much more fulfilling for me to not be covered
with with anxiety the whole time, to not just be like,
oh my god, I'm an orphan girl without a mom.
How am I going to do this? You know, what
do I do if he wakes up in the middle
of the night and and he's vomiting, and like you
(34:57):
start to panic with your first baby, You don't you
don't don't realize, you know, I don't know if you remember,
but he fell off the couch. You know, the couch
was very low, it was it was right like the
couches here. You need four people to help you get up.
But he rolled off the couch and I was afraid
that he hit his head on the wooden leg, but
he didn't because it was under the couch. So but
(35:18):
I called the doctor and I was like panicking, HYPERVENI
my son fell off the couch. How high is the couch?
About three two and haf feet two? And effie, okay,
miss so Donald, You've just survived your son's first fall.
Was like, and what do I do? Do I bring
him in terret of care? What do I do? They're like,
you do nothing? Is he crying? And no, he's fine,
He's fine, and and so you learn, you know, but
(35:40):
you need to have those maternal figures in your life,
especially when you lost one so young that you know
you don't always know where and when you're gonna need
a mother if you've never had the chance to have one.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
And I always felt I didn't have a mother.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
So interesting right because she was not really able to
care for you. She wasn't in her right right mind.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I had a sister who I made into my mother,
and after my sister passed away, I used to think
I killed her.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Oh a lot.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
I don't. I had a lot of therapy. I'm okay,
I know that that's not real. At the moment, I
thought I put so much pressure on her all her
life that I probably killed her. No, And but I
went into therapy.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Yeah, yeah, and it helped.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, swimming helped a lot.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Now you love swimming, but you don't do it that much.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
No, Why the water is too cold?
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yeah? Yeah, well Robin has a heated pool.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Now, now she does, but it's not is it working?
Speaker 1 (36:53):
It's working, it's working.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Well, then it's then it's new, Okay, because it wasn't.
There wasn't a pool there I built. Yeah, don't I
sound like I'm rich and famous. You kind of are
kind of Can we talk?
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Yeah? So, so your relationship with Robin is one of
the most beautiful mother daughter relationships that I know of.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Would you say that too? I mean I'm crying, yeah, yeah,
I mean I think that you are so involved and
so obviously in love with each other. You care about
each other, You're in each other's lives on a on
a daily you know, minute by minute basis. We have
had this group text since the beginning of COVID that
(37:40):
Robin's set up, and we have taken it all the
way through till now when COVID is pretty much done.
Although my nanny just had it that we we talk
on these group texts three or four times a day,
and you know, I don't know, Robin calls you what
ten times a day, at least four, at least four, yeah, yeah,
(38:02):
at least four. And you had to work on it too,
don't you think it did it just come naturally?
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I think tragedy brought us together.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
What do you think are the ingredients to a good
relationship with your adult daughter? Like so many of my
friends have problems with their moms and their eighties that
it's you know, and Robin has the patience of a saint.
I give her that, she surely does, and she takes
care of you like a concierge at the best hotel
(38:36):
in the country.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
You can get better than that, right, Sometimes it's very annoying,
yeah to you at me, Yeah, yeah, But I know
where it's coming from. So I have to be patient
because she's hurting. I'm not hurting from it, right, you know,
I accept what she's giving. And I try and she's
(38:58):
going to listen to this and never to me. I
try not to make her part of my mental illness,
which is I don't feel good. This hurts. That hurts.
I mean, I had a heart attack and I had
just come out to California. This is years ago, and
(39:22):
I called her. I was in a motel for some reason,
because I usually stayed with her, and I called her.
I first called nine one one. I said, I'm having
a heart attack. I need an ambulance. That's how I
got on that tee, and then I called Robin. I said, listen,
I'm having a heart attack and I'm going to Saint
(39:45):
John's is where I was near. And she said I'm
coming to get you. I said, no, you are not
to come and get me. An ambulance is coming to
get me. And I went to the hospital, and as
luck would have it, the doctor who operated on mother
(40:07):
Teresa was the visiting doctor that day at the hospital.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Okay, I have to explain to people. Linda Richmond is
all about the doctors. Where they go to school, where
they studied, were their grades? Who else do you treat?
Do you treat anyone that I'm aware of, is it
someone famous that I would like? And how about this
The weirdest thing about Linda Richmond. If you say any
(40:33):
celebrity dead or alive, like Soupy Sales, Linda will say,
you know, his daughter's carniologist was my uncle's neighbor. But
you know the most absurd facts about whose doctor is
connected to I do. And you had a Mother Teresa
doctor there for your heart attack.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
So I when I woke up, they said, you know
who operated on you, Mother Teresa's doctor when it's not
even Jewish.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
No, not even There's some interesting books about her that
said that her faith was kind of diminished at the
end of her life, and she wrote some interesting diary
entries about whether or not she believed in God Towards
these very two fascinating books. I read one about a
postulate who was in her service in the what is
(41:28):
it called the Sisters of Charity or I don't know,
but anyway, it was very fascinating books, very fascinating, which
brings us back to Barber Streis. And I know you
listen to it like I did. Right I started out
reading it and I heard everyone saying, you have to
listen to it. So I listened to it, and it
was like a warm blanket over me. You know, I
(41:50):
had to find myself sitting and somewhere in the sun
with the headphones on because it would almost make me,
like feel so comforted that I'd go to sleep with
her in my head. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
But Rosie, let me just ask you this question. Go
with your name ever mentioned in the book? No, it
was not mine? Was?
Speaker 1 (42:12):
All right? Listen, bitch, all right, right now, let's throw down, Linda.
I don't care that I got twenty years on you,
I know, No, I mean listen, for what she was
and is to me in my life, and how she
was and is to me now is more than I
ever could have expected. The fact that she was so
(42:33):
welcoming and so understanding and so genuinely loving of this,
you know, person who wouldn't stop crying when she looked
at her. I mean, what must that feel like? Because
we're not the only ones, Linda, are millions of us.
Everyone could feel the power of that voice and that
talent and her acting and her directing, and she's like
(42:55):
a powerhouse, a force of life, that entertainment and artistic
I don't think has been matched in our.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Generation, our generation at all. But a thought just came
to my mind. And that's when Rosie was living in Florida.
I was living in Florida and Rosie, I don't know
who called who or what. I think it was you
calling me. You said, you're not going to believe this
(43:23):
Barbara Streiss and asked if she could stay in my
house yes, because she didn't like the hotel yes that
she was at. I said, oh my god, So what's
going on? Yeah, she said, I'm redecorating the whole thing today.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
You know, I call the people who flowers in every room,
every room, everything come on. And we got a new
toaster because the toaster was not good. And she left
me little post it notes around my house in my
bedroom and I kept them all. I have every single
everything she's ever sent me, given me and to me.
(44:00):
I haven't a special box, and I you know, I
don't know what I'm gonna do with it. I'm gonna
you know, Bobby Pierce, my friend, Bobby, Love Bobby. He's
a great guy. He always says to me, you know,
why didn't you keep your Emmys? Why don't you keep
your and I had said, if my kids want that
as a remembrance of me, I think I've failed in
some way, right, if all they want is my career stuff,
(44:24):
like my achievements outside of the family. So I thought,
like a box of these intimate, meaningful letters from my
pretend mother in my brain. You know that that would
would mean more to my children when I'm gone than
ever a statue, could you know?
Speaker 2 (44:45):
But I do what it wants.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
I think she did, all right, don't worry about Robin.
All right, Well, Linda, this has been really fun. This
is all it is. We're done. Done.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
I can't believe it.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
You did it successfully. Now what do you have to
promote anything?
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Turning eighty three, turning eighty three. Yes, we're gonna have
a little party, Yes, Robins, and I'm going to be
smiling and laughing and hoping I get really nice prisons.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Honey, whatever you need I got for you.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Of course you do. All right, Well, I think I
dropped this.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Come. I love you very much. Thank you for doing
my podcast.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
I love your room.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
All right, Linda Richmond, Ladies and gentlemen, don't go away.
We'll be back after this. Well, I hope you enjoyed
that Linda Richmond is one of a kind and I
(45:49):
love her to death, and I hope that you liked it.
Next week on onward will be just me, Rosie O'Donnell,
just me talking. Let's see how that goes. Peace out, everybody,
Well, hi, everybody, I am here with Linda Richmond. Linda Richmond,
how are you? Linda?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm great. I'm very excited being here.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
You look really good.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
No work yet? What do you mean, no facelift?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I don't believe you. You had a facelift at like forty,
didn't you, or something? Something ridiculously young?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Right, yes, before the damage came in.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Exactly when you were looking perfect. That's what you decided
you needed a face. When you go tell the people
how old you are, Linda, I'm I will be eighty
three next month. I don't even know what month anymore. Yeah,
but you're going to be eighty three?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Can you believe that?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
No? I can't believe it. I'm shocked by it. I
wish I had some advice for people who are turning
into their eighties, and there is no advice. You just cry.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, you fought it hard. You did not like your
eightieth birthday. We were there for a big party. You
hated the party. Yeah, why because you're not a party person.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I love fun, but I didn't want to be the
settler of saying, yes, she's eighty how wonderful?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Right? Right?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
And now I'm turning eighty three, right, and I'm praying
my daughter doesn't make me anything.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
No, I'm sure she'll do something.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Oh a light, you know, chicken dinner.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Linda's daughter is one of my closest friends, Robin Juzanne,
and we kind of.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Met through her, and we did meet through her.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah. I met Robin on a plane going to New York.
And I was about to adopt a baby. And I
said to Robin, oh, where do you live? Was right
close to where I lived, and I said, next week,
I'm getting a baby, and over you came and you
never left.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Well, it's not my memory of the story.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Tell the story.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
The story is Robin met you on a clane. Yeah,
I really never heard of you. I'm sorry, that's okay.
And I lived across town from you in New York,
in New York, yes, and by this time I knew
you know who you were, but I never saw a
movie or anything.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Right, And you had asked, Robin, do you think your
mother would babysit for me? Because I don't have a
nanna yet?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Right? Because I was just starting my show and I
had Parker who was in diapers and hadn't yet walked.
He was still crawling.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
He was three months old.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Yeah, he was a tiny little thing, and I didn't
know who I could ask to come, baby said, So
I said to Robin, would your mother ever want to
just hang out here at night? The baby will be
asleep and I just have to go. I think it
was the Emmys. Was it the Emmys?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I don't remember the occasion.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, yeah, but you came over and you did it.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I did it, and he was like a piece of gold.
He never cried.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Missus Parker, who's now twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I know, right, And he was a doll and it
was lovely. And I remember this. You won't remember, but
it tickled the hell out of me. You asked him charged, Oh,
I own my own business. I was self supporting, and
I said, I don't charge anything. So the next day,
(03:34):
one day later, I get a phone call from Rosie.
Do you think that you could help me out? I
still don't have a nanny, right, would you watch him
another night? And I said sure when she said tonight,
and I said fine. And he was fussy that I remember,
he was fussy, But I had two children. I knew
(03:57):
what to do. Sure, And I went into his room
and he had a couch in his rooms, right, And
I sat on the couch until he and I talked
to him until he fell asleep because a lot of
people get bored when I keep talking. And he went
to sleep. And I don't remember ever leaving your house
(04:19):
for the next two years.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
And a half years. Linda literally moved in to my
house on Broadway in sixty fifth Street, and we lived
there for about two and a half years. Then you
helped me with him, and you were the grandmother that
he didn't have. And it's a beautiful, beautiful relationship.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It's he's still He's still in my heart. I mean
when he comes out here and I see him. For
those of you who aren't Jewish, I killed, which means
I burst with pride, Yeah, because I feel like I
had a part in well you did bringing up this child. Well,
Rosie moved again, but she moved to a fancy Schmanz
(04:59):
house hell in Hayes Estate. Yes, but of course she
never tells you what she's going to do. She just
does it. Will you wake up in another place?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, I wake up and go. I have an idea,
let's go. Yeah. But when I met you, wasn't it
How long after your son, Jordan, had died in a
car accident. Was it shortly after or no, No, it
was years.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Well, he died when he was twenty twenty nine, so
which made me do the math somebody I don't know.
He was born when I was twenty right, so I
had to be in my thirties maybe early forties, right,
(05:43):
And you know, a baby meant nothing in terms of
can I care for this baby? Everyone in love with him?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Of course, of course.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
You know. And but Rosie had this habit of not
telling me what company she was getting.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well, I never thought I had to say, oh, so
and so Star is coming. I would just invite my
friends over and then afterwards you would be like, what
didn't you tell me It was Katie Burk, you know?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Or the best one was Madonna, that's right, because she
was at the height of her career. Yes, yes, and
she gets out of a limo and I said to myself,
that looks like Madonna and she gets out with her
nanny and I went, oh god, that is Madonna. Yes,
And I remember sitting and having one sch at Rosie's
(06:29):
and Madonna was just Madonna.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Now, but you had been around famous people because Robin
was at one time married to Mike Myers, who created
Linda Richmond Coffee Talk YEP, which is based on you
totally and you'll love for Barbara streisand totally, which is
how you and I connected initially. Yes, right, I think
we are the two biggest fans in the world.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, and I think she knows it, Yeah, she does.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And I never you know, I never miss a birthday,
I never miss an event. Let's talk the book. What
do you think of that book?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
It was boring and brilliant.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Boring?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
It was boring and brilliant because.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Do you think it was boring to you because we
know everything?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (07:12):
I think people who aren't as avid fans, right, they
maybe heard stories they didn't know of. But you and
I kind of we knew a lot of things that
were in.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
There, Like we knew more than Barbara.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Think that scare her, let's not say that, but yeah, no,
we knew a lot of the story of her life
because you know it was really the whole reason I
became a performer was because of her.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Well, I didn't become a performer, I just became a
crazy fan. I remember hearing a story from her that
she had a contentious relationship with a mother, yes, and
you didn't have a mother, And I had a contentious
relationship with.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
My mother, and you didn't have a father.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
My father had died. He was my father was killed
in a car crash. It runs in the family, obviously,
And no one told me he was dead until I
was a teenage, late teenage, So.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
For over a decade, no one mentioned his name.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
No, and I wasn't allowed to ask how old.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Were you when he died? Eight? You were eight? Until
you were like in college or senior in high school.
Nobody really even And what did you imagine, Linda, What
did you think happened?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I thought, well, I had a as I said, I
had a difficult relationship with my mother, so I figured
he left her. Oh, and he met somebody else who
was fun and frolicky, and he was off having a
great time. So even though I was confused, yeah, I
(08:48):
was happy for him.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Oh that's so interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
And I never told a soul what was going on
in my head. Yeah, so nobody ever spoke of him.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Now, what happened to me? A couple of times after
my died, as somebody would call like solicitors, you know,
which at the time when they knew it was a kid,
They'd say, is your mommy home? And I remember having
such panic and I said, she's in the shower. And
I hung up because I couldn't get myself to say
that she had died. It wasn't until I was a
(09:17):
college freshman that my roommate said to me, how come
you never talk about your mother? And I was like,
I guess it's now or another you know, And I said, oh,
my mother died when I was ten, And it was
the first time I ever told anyone that.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Well, I never said that he was dead because I
didn't know, right, I didn't know. But that also bonded
me with Barbara. Yes, her father died. I think he
was I think she was six months old or something.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, she was an infant. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And when I met her, I said, you know, I
told her I was the most disgusting person in the world.
I said, I'm the biggest fan. I had been invited
to her concert in Vegas, right, and she only wanted
to speak to me, which I loved. And we sat
(10:10):
and we talked. We talked about my father, we talked
about my mother was not a mother and her mind.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
She had a lot of mental illness.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I had a lot of mental illness. Yes, Barbara's mother
was just mean to her. Yeah, it seems so jealous.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So unsupportive. I mean, so maybe jealous of her talent. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Well I spoke to the mother really yeah. At the event,
I figured, you know, this is the woman who created
my idol, right too. And I walked over to her.
I said, hello, I'm Linda. I didn't even use my
last name. I didn't. I didn't want her to think
I was a jerk, but I was being jerky. Yeah, yeah,
(10:53):
And I said, you have created a masterpiece. And she said,
did you have a here me sing?
Speaker 1 (11:01):
No?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
She did, nice, God is my witness, that's what she said.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Where on earth would you have heard her mother sing?
I mean, how could she ask that? Where would you
have heard her sing in shule com on now? I
mean she wasn't known to have a singing voice.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Right at all? Not at all? And I said, I know,
I'm sad that I never got a chance to hear
you sing, but I'm sure you have a beautiful voice.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
But I told you all you needed to know.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
It's all I needed to know. And then Barbara and
I bonded. I didn't tell her what her mother said.
Of course that would have been cruel. But we talked
about our family and our parents, and we talked a
lot about fathers, because I lost mine, she lost her.
And I remember having this conversation that she brought up
(11:51):
and she said something about her father and I said
that I didn't even know my father was dead. Yeah,
I said, he was argued a place cold and I
don't even remember the name of the place. Now. She goes,
that's where my father is.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And I said to her, I go there like once
a month. Do you want me to visit your father?
She said yes, And I said something that I will
never regret, but I said it. I said, it would
be my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
The things that come out of your mouth. But how
long did it take you to go? Like I am
talking to Barbara Streis and like for me to this
day still it still echoes in my head when I'm
anywhere near her, that is her People sometimes say how
often do you see Barbara Streis? And I'm like, never, ever, never.
(12:44):
I send her flowers On April twenty.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Fourth, you know, but you went to our house, yes.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
To interview her. I went to her house a couple.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Times I was jealous and I remember that. I remember,
but I don't keep that a secret.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, well, was there anyone besides Barbara for you? Was
it always and only her? Like you know what? Was
she the guiding light? The north Star?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
She was it? When I was growing up, like teenageys,
I became a you should excuse that, became a dancer,
a Latin American dancer up in the Catskill Mountains.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Okay, So I.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Met Buddy Hacket and a Sid Caesar and people, and
I thought, I have the life. Boy, there don't get
better than this. Robbic Ulay, oh stop, rabbit Lay stopped
his show to talk to me. He said, are you okay?
(13:41):
I went no. He said, would you like me to
come down to you know, into the the audience and
say hello to you? And I went yes, And he
came down, kissed me on the cheek, and I thought,
nothing is ever going to be the same for me.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, you know, it's so weird the role that entertainers
played in your life and played in my life too.
It was like it was like a ladder up out
of the darkness. You climb and climb and climb. Every time,
Like I heard streisan or saw a movie or a
record came out. It was like a new burst of
endorphins for me. You know, anything she did, anything she
(14:23):
does still totally fascinates and interests me.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
You know, well, you know I was agoraphobic.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I do know that for many, many, very.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Many years, which meant I stayed home. I never left
my house ever ever.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
And you also stayed in your bedroom. Mostly.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I stayed in my bedroom and I had the TV on,
and if she was going to be on, I was there.
But I also had a record player, and I had
someone had people running errands for me to give me
albums of her, and I could listen to her all day.
(14:59):
And in my mind, I swear to anyone who's listening
to this, I am normal. And I have like five
therapists who agree. They all said, you're normal.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
They want me to give those names because I'm not
going to no. Uh yeah, you normal in terms of
your love for her, or normal.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
In terms my love for her was unimaginable. Yes, you know,
I'd be depressed and then I'd put on a record.
You heard the word record and old tells you how
old I am, and I would just be elated and
I would just go from depression to happiness, and then
(15:42):
I would pretend. But I knew I was crazy when
I did this. Yeah, I would pretend that Barbara and
I had lunch together.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
I did that all the time. Good, are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
No? Why do why we get along?
Speaker 1 (15:53):
No? I would sit on my bathroom and I would
pop my little pimples and I would talk to Barbara
streisand and Johnny Carson like I was the next game.
Oh you know, so I turn and I'd say, yes, Barbara,
so Johnny, Like that was my fantasy, my delusion. I
talked to her a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
You know, I spent years doing that. Yeah's Barbara. And
I'm telling you, when I met her, I thought I
died and went to heaven. And she looked different in
the sense that she was prettier than anybody had ever seen.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
I think she's the most gorgeous woman that I've ever
seen in my life. Here in what's up? Doc?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Gorgeous? Oh my god, gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Right. Hello, she'll take that off at the end. Hello, daddy. Uh. Yeah,
there's there's nothing that I have no negative thing to
say about her, even knowing her. Being around her, people
say and she said to me, don't meet your idols.
I'll never be able to live up to what you
have in your head. But you know what she lived
(16:57):
up to and beyond my wildest dreams of her.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Right, well, she yes, she did something for me that
amazed me. My son also loved her, right my whole
house loved her.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
But you were always playing it in your bedroom exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
She asked me if I wanted a picture with her.
I would never ask her if for anything, and I said, yes,
I would, And she took this picture. And the next
day she came back and in a frame was a
picture of me and Barbara, and she wrote something about
my son. She said, I hope Jordan's happy where he is.
(17:38):
And I looked at her and I said, how do
you do it? She said, what did I do? I said,
you did a mitzvah. For those of you listening, that
means a good deed. And I thought that was the
kindest thing ever. I said, and let me ask you something.
This is how brilliant I was. I said that you
(18:00):
go to the mall to get a frame. She goes, no,
I have people who do that.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
What do you think? She was in bedbath and beyond
looking for something cream colored. No, that did not happen.
We'll be back with MORELANDA. Richmond after this. Now, you
(18:38):
not only have you lived through some ups and downs
like every eighty three year old almost would do right
has done in their life, but you, you know, you
took like grief and you made a book I'd rather laugh.
And you ended up going to Canyon Ranch and lecturing
people on the grief of losing a child or grief
(19:03):
in general grief. And how did that whole book and
how did that switch take place?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Well, I went to a therapist. I needed a therapist
at this point, you know, as the years went on,
I was going downhill and Robin, my daughter, said to me,
there's a therapist there. His name is Dan Baker. You
should see him. I said, I'm not seeing another therapist.
(19:29):
I'm done. I'm not going. And she said, Ma.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
You need to go.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
You need to just go. So I made an appointment
and I go into his office. He's wearing jeans, a
cowboy hat, a cowboy shirt, boots, and I'm thinking, I'm
a jew from New York and I'm going to this guy.
He knows cowboys, he knows nothing. And I went into
(19:59):
his office this and we started talking and he asked
me a bunch of questions and I was charming. Sure,
you know, playing the game charge? Yeah, oh yeah, that
was the biggie. And he said, can I say something
to you? I said yes. He said, I think you're
(20:22):
full of shit. I said, excuse me?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
He said, you have covered up all your pain with humor,
he said, And there are a lot of things that
you should cry about that you're laughing at, he said,
because it doesn't hurt to laugh. And he was my doctor,
and this is how we went. I said, I don't
(20:48):
want therapy. I've been to four thousand therapists. He goes, no,
this is not going to be regular therapy. And what
we did is we went to the swimming pool and
we had we had sessions in the pool.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Wow, And what did that? What was that? What did
that do? It just made it not the stagnancy of
an office.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I didn't feel I was mentally ill hm because all
those years that after my son died, it was like.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Dark and confused.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Everything is dark and confusing. And then I lost my sister. Yes,
and that was that was a huge hit for me.
She raised me basically yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
She was like fifteen years older than you.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
She was god almost ten ten years old.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah, and I loved her. She was great fun. My
knew were in Florida and you guys were like the
Bobbsey twins. You were like, you know, separated never right, absolutely,
And then she got sick and sadly died of cancer. Correct, right.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And I was so crazy, And I kind of loved
to tell this story because when someone dies, you do
know how you're going to react. Course, what I did
is I lived in the next building from her in
Florida at this time, and every morning I went to
her house and made soup. Now, I am one of
(22:16):
the worst cooks that you'll ever meet. I can vouch
for that. And I decided that the soup was going
to cure her until one day after she had chemo
or radiation or something. She said, I love you so much.
(22:36):
And I said, I love you so much. She goes,
I know, but love me less. You're killing me. She said,
your soups are the worst soups I've never had in
my whole life.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
And that's what's making me sick. Right right.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
So, at any rate, I had a lot of a
lot of stuff in my body, a lot of pain.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
And you never really did work out the stuff with
your dad, or did you with that therapist as well?
The grief of losing your dad and then not being
told that he had passed.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Well, he just said to me, that's crazy, that's crazy.
Your mother was ill right and didn't know how to
handle it. Yeah, so they made believe that he didn't
exist because I never heard the word dad.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
No. Same with us. You never heard mommy in our
house again, and it was almost like a terrifying word
to say. Right. And I remember my aunt Minnie, who
had stayed with us for a little while after, who
was my father's brother's Hawaiian wife, and she sometimes would
set an extra place setting at the table by mistake,
(23:42):
and it was just this horrible silent movie of her
realizing it and trying to pick up the plate and
move it back to the cabinet. But I noticed everything,
you know, so it was like we're aren't allowed to
say it, but the evidence of her absence was visible everywhere, you.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Know, I know that feeling right. You know, people would
never talk about the word father, let alone having a father, right,
you know, until I was god, I was getting married
so I was eighteen or nineteen.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Oh, my Godlindon nineteen you got married.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
I learned, I was body trained and I got married.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Oh god, no, what is that what everybody did? Then
you got out of high school? You got married?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yeah, and I married a very nice man. But I
shouldn't have gotten married.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Well, who can get married at eighteen? That's so young.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I wanted a baby. I wanted a baby very badly.
And my firstborn was my son, right, who ultimately was
killed in a car access Yes. And my father had
been killed in a car truck truck accident. Yeah, And
I thought to myself at that time it must have
(25:02):
been written that way, right, So I'm not going to
feel anything at all at all. And luckily I became
pregnant during during that time and gave birth to an
angel in disguise, and I put everything that I had
(25:25):
into her, and which sent her into therapy for a
lot of years. You know, you can't fill a hole.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
With another with another person, especially another wounded sibling, you know.
I mean, how old was she, George?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
She was in her twenties. In her twenties, yeah, you know,
and she had her wounds, and but I was I
was the I always thought of myself as the queen
of depression and misery and unhappiness, and I gave it
easily to everybodybody else right, you know, and with an
(26:03):
outside that looked happy.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Well, that's the thing is that you're funny. You know.
People think it's butter, it's coffee talk. They think of comedy,
and you know, I know that you did really profound
work with the book and with all the grieving that
you helped so many people that you know it probably
was life altering for you.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
It was life altering because people would come up to
me after a lecture and say, you've changed my life,
and I go, how m And they would tell me
and I go, I did that. And there was a
very famous person that I'll tell you later who came
up to me who said, I've been diagnosed as bipolar,
(26:45):
which I didn't even know what bipolar was at that point.
He said, and you're an important person and I said
I am. He said, you didn't know that. I said, no,
You've made a big change in me. Whether I can
hold on to it, I don't know sure, he said,
(27:07):
but you've made a big change. And then a girl
came up to me, a young girl I'm still friendly with,
and she we just started talking. She said, my father
just died. And I looked at her and I said,
I'm so sorry. I said, you know it's your father
(27:27):
and I'm not going to use his name, and she said, yes,
how do you know? I said, you have every mannerism
of his.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Was a famous I know, the child of someone famous.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
And with still friends?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
How about that?
Speaker 2 (27:44):
And she calls me, and she calls me at least
once a month. She called me this time and she said,
I haven't heard from you in a while. And I said,
I had surgery and I didn't feel like talking on
the phone. I'm sorry as short of emailed you. And
(28:05):
she said, you can make no mistakes with Migland.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
That's sweet, that's sweet. Well, you have touched so many people.
You have so many people in your life that really
care about you and that you're invested, and I mean,
I think it's why you're doing so well in terms
of your age and your cognition. And you're you know,
you're you're fully active in loving people. You're not so
(28:30):
active in getting up and around and moving. You know
that's something that you know, do you think that's something
that can change.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
At eighty three, well, I'm sitting next to my physical
therapy yes exactly, yells at me daily, right for not
getting off my as they say in French, tookus.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yes, without getting off your ass to move around. But
do you think that there could be a change in that?
Do you think at eighty three you're kind of like, well,
this is how I am and I'm not going to
change it, because like today, you didn't have the wheelchair
coming in, you didn't have the canes coming in, you
have you just you know, you're you're doing much better
than you had been.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
I also, if I fell or couldn't make the steps,
I wouldn't be embarrassed in front of you. Oh right, right,
because we lived together for so long. Yeah, yes exactly.
But if you were having company, I would probably take
the wheelchair in and and and I'd be happy.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yeah, you know, at least they knew I wouldn't fall.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
More with Linda after this, how much do you think
(29:55):
our relationship is based on my needing a mother and
you needing a child?
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Time I do too.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
I think it's shared, right.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Oh, definitely shared. I remember you had an accident in Florida,
and you caut uh. Yeah, fishing a fishing thing, fishing.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
I cut off the price tag of a fishing pole
and it like severed everything in my hand.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
And I heard about it, and I was living in
Florida and I flew down there. When I say flew,
I mean by carr uh. And I wasn't allowed in
the room. And I cried. I cried like a baby.
I said, I have to see her. Yeah, if she's
(30:42):
where my brain was, if she sees me, she's going
to be a right.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
And it's true.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
What's illusion is that I believe it's true.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
How about when I had my heart attack and I
called you up? You want to you want to tell
that story? You tell this is a good story. I
had had a heart attack on a Monday morning and
went home and was feeling really bad. And I was
in my art studio with Blakey and I called Linda
and I said, Linda, do you think this anyway? I
could have had a heart attack? And what did you say?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I said, what are the symptoms?
Speaker 1 (31:16):
And I had all of them?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
You had all of them. And I said, get to
the hospital now. That's right, no matter what it is,
you should be seen now.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
But I was not thinking right really, and I waited
another day a half. Yeah, I went to a doctor
on Wednesday at four pm when I had had a
heart attack Monday at nine am.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Yeah. Oh, I I was so angry with you. I know,
I didn't want you to die either, you know, and
like I couldn't make headway with you.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
No, But I was, like I was fifty, and I thought,
a heart attack has to feel more painful than this,
Like my arm's hurt really, really badly. But I had
helped a woman get out of a car, and so
I had helped her and it took longer and my
arms were hurting, and I don't know what I thought.
I thought, how could this be a heart attack? How
(32:14):
could this be? But I was very lucky because the
doctor said I had like a half an hour more
and that would have been that.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
I couldn't imagine you not knowing it was a heart attack.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Right, I think part of me knew, but part of
me was, you know, here's the stupid thing. This is
what women do. Women sometimes worry about other people who
aren't even in the equation. Like I was thinking, if
I call the ambulance, what if there's a car accident
and somebody really needs that ambulance and this isn't a
heart attack after all, then I would have caused the
(32:45):
death of a young kid in a car accident because
I wasted the ambulance. That's where I was.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
You know, anyone listening to this right now knows who
Rosie is, because that's what she'll do. She'll put her
life aside so that somebody else who doesn't even exist
gets care before her.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Right That's when my brain goes through. It's like, you know,
don't be selfish and take this when someone else could
need that, you know, And I mean it's a way
that women often treat themselves lest in a family. When
you're the mother, you take care of your kids first,
and you know, you don't put yourself first oftentimes, I
(33:28):
think when you're a mom, and I was deep into
mom mode at that point. You know, not that I've
ever gotten out.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Of what day? What day does you leave?
Speaker 1 (33:38):
I'm still in it. I'm still in it. Yeah, But
I think that our relationship has been very healing for
me and having lost my mom and to have you
for you know, the time that I missed my mother
the most is when they handed me Parker, and I
remember thinking, God, I wish I had my mom here
to help me because you're scared, and he was premi
(34:01):
and he was tiny, and and then not two days later,
ding dong, care for what you wish for?
Speaker 2 (34:07):
But you just said something that he was healing, Yeah,
your mother. And then I get a phone call, will
you watch Rosie's son after I've lost my son?
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Right?
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Right? I didn't care if it was Rosio. I didn't
even know who Rose O'Donnell was. Right, I didn't care
if it was Mary Smith. You have a son and
he's in, you know, in the condition that that Parker was,
which was a pre meiate. Right, of course I'm going
to watch it.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Yeah, yeah, so yeah, But it made it made it
so much more fulfilling for me to not be covered
with with anxiety the whole time, to not just be like,
oh my god, I'm an orphan girl without a mom.
How am I going to do this? You know, what
do I do if he wakes up in the middle
of the night and and he's vomiting, and like you
(34:57):
start to panic with your first baby, You don't you
don't don't realize, you know, I don't know if you remember,
but he fell off the couch. You know, the couch
was very low, it was it was right like the
couches here. You need four people to help you get up.
But he rolled off the couch and I was afraid
that he hit his head on the wooden leg, but
he didn't because it was under the couch. So but
(35:18):
I called the doctor and I was like panicking, HYPERVENI
my son fell off the couch. How high is the couch?
About three two and haf feet two? And effie, okay,
miss so Donald, You've just survived your son's first fall.
Was like, and what do I do? Do I bring
him in terret of care? What do I do? They're like,
you do nothing? Is he crying? And no, he's fine,
He's fine, and and so you learn, you know, but
(35:40):
you need to have those maternal figures in your life,
especially when you lost one so young that you know
you don't always know where and when you're gonna need
a mother if you've never had the chance to have one.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
And I always felt I didn't have a mother.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
So interesting right because she was not really able to
care for you. She wasn't in her right right mind.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I had a sister who I made into my mother,
and after my sister passed away, I used to think
I killed her.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Oh a lot.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
I don't. I had a lot of therapy. I'm okay,
I know that that's not real. At the moment, I
thought I put so much pressure on her all her
life that I probably killed her. No, And but I
went into therapy.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Yeah, yeah, and it helped.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, swimming helped a lot.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Now you love swimming, but you don't do it that much.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
No, Why the water is too cold?
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yeah? Yeah, well Robin has a heated pool.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Now, now she does, but it's not is it working?
Speaker 1 (36:53):
It's working, it's working.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Well, then it's then it's new, Okay, because it wasn't.
There wasn't a pool there I built. Yeah, don't I
sound like I'm rich and famous. You kind of are
kind of Can we talk?
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Yeah? So, so your relationship with Robin is one of
the most beautiful mother daughter relationships that I know of.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Would you say that too? I mean I'm crying, yeah, yeah,
I mean I think that you are so involved and
so obviously in love with each other. You care about
each other, You're in each other's lives on a on
a daily you know, minute by minute basis. We have
had this group text since the beginning of COVID that
(37:40):
Robin's set up, and we have taken it all the
way through till now when COVID is pretty much done.
Although my nanny just had it that we we talk
on these group texts three or four times a day,
and you know, I don't know, Robin calls you what
ten times a day, at least four, at least four, yeah, yeah,
(38:02):
at least four. And you had to work on it too,
don't you think it did it just come naturally?
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I think tragedy brought us together.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
What do you think are the ingredients to a good
relationship with your adult daughter? Like so many of my
friends have problems with their moms and their eighties that
it's you know, and Robin has the patience of a saint.
I give her that, she surely does, and she takes
care of you like a concierge at the best hotel
(38:36):
in the country.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
You can get better than that, right, Sometimes it's very annoying,
yeah to you at me, Yeah, yeah, But I know
where it's coming from. So I have to be patient
because she's hurting. I'm not hurting from it, right, you know,
I accept what she's giving. And I try and she's
(38:58):
going to listen to this and never to me. I
try not to make her part of my mental illness,
which is I don't feel good. This hurts. That hurts.
I mean, I had a heart attack and I had
just come out to California. This is years ago, and
(39:22):
I called her. I was in a motel for some reason,
because I usually stayed with her, and I called her.
I first called nine one one. I said, I'm having
a heart attack. I need an ambulance. That's how I
got on that tee, and then I called Robin. I said, listen,
I'm having a heart attack and I'm going to Saint
(39:45):
John's is where I was near. And she said I'm
coming to get you. I said, no, you are not
to come and get me. An ambulance is coming to
get me. And I went to the hospital, and as
luck would have it, the doctor who operated on mother
(40:07):
Teresa was the visiting doctor that day at the hospital.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Okay, I have to explain to people. Linda Richmond is
all about the doctors. Where they go to school, where
they studied, were their grades? Who else do you treat?
Do you treat anyone that I'm aware of, is it
someone famous that I would like? And how about this
The weirdest thing about Linda Richmond. If you say any
(40:33):
celebrity dead or alive, like Soupy Sales, Linda will say,
you know, his daughter's carniologist was my uncle's neighbor. But
you know the most absurd facts about whose doctor is
connected to I do. And you had a Mother Teresa
doctor there for your heart attack.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
So I when I woke up, they said, you know
who operated on you, Mother Teresa's doctor when it's not
even Jewish.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
No, not even There's some interesting books about her that
said that her faith was kind of diminished at the
end of her life, and she wrote some interesting diary
entries about whether or not she believed in God Towards
these very two fascinating books. I read one about a
postulate who was in her service in the what is
(41:28):
it called the Sisters of Charity or I don't know,
but anyway, it was very fascinating books, very fascinating, which
brings us back to Barber Streis. And I know you
listen to it like I did. Right I started out
reading it and I heard everyone saying, you have to
listen to it. So I listened to it, and it
was like a warm blanket over me. You know, I
(41:50):
had to find myself sitting and somewhere in the sun
with the headphones on because it would almost make me,
like feel so comforted that I'd go to sleep with
her in my head. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
But Rosie, let me just ask you this question. Go
with your name ever mentioned in the book? No, it
was not mine? Was?
Speaker 1 (42:12):
All right? Listen, bitch, all right, right now, let's throw down, Linda.
I don't care that I got twenty years on you,
I know, No, I mean listen, for what she was
and is to me in my life, and how she
was and is to me now is more than I
ever could have expected. The fact that she was so
(42:33):
welcoming and so understanding and so genuinely loving of this,
you know, person who wouldn't stop crying when she looked
at her. I mean, what must that feel like? Because
we're not the only ones, Linda, are millions of us.
Everyone could feel the power of that voice and that
talent and her acting and her directing, and she's like
(42:55):
a powerhouse, a force of life, that entertainment and artistic
I don't think has been matched in our.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Generation, our generation at all. But a thought just came
to my mind. And that's when Rosie was living in Florida.
I was living in Florida and Rosie, I don't know
who called who or what. I think it was you
calling me. You said, you're not going to believe this
(43:23):
Barbara Streiss and asked if she could stay in my
house yes, because she didn't like the hotel yes that
she was at. I said, oh my god, So what's
going on? Yeah, she said, I'm redecorating the whole thing today.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
You know, I call the people who flowers in every room,
every room, everything come on. And we got a new
toaster because the toaster was not good. And she left
me little post it notes around my house in my
bedroom and I kept them all. I have every single
everything she's ever sent me, given me and to me.
(44:00):
I haven't a special box, and I you know, I
don't know what I'm gonna do with it. I'm gonna
you know, Bobby Pierce, my friend, Bobby, Love Bobby. He's
a great guy. He always says to me, you know,
why didn't you keep your Emmys? Why don't you keep
your and I had said, if my kids want that
as a remembrance of me, I think I've failed in
some way, right, if all they want is my career stuff,
(44:24):
like my achievements outside of the family. So I thought,
like a box of these intimate, meaningful letters from my
pretend mother in my brain. You know that that would
would mean more to my children when I'm gone than
ever a statue, could you know?
Speaker 2 (44:45):
But I do what it wants.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
I think she did, all right, don't worry about Robin.
All right, Well, Linda, this has been really fun. This
is all it is. We're done. Done.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
I can't believe it.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
You did it successfully. Now what do you have to
promote anything?
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Turning eighty three, turning eighty three. Yes, we're gonna have
a little party, Yes, Robins, and I'm going to be
smiling and laughing and hoping I get really nice prisons.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Honey, whatever you need I got for you.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Of course you do. All right, Well, I think I
dropped this.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Come. I love you very much. Thank you for doing
my podcast.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
I love your room.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
All right, Linda Richmond, Ladies and gentlemen, don't go away.
We'll be back after this. Well, I hope you enjoyed
that Linda Richmond is one of a kind and I
(45:49):
love her to death, and I hope that you liked it.
Next week on onward will be just me, Rosie O'Donnell,
just me talking. Let's see how that goes. Peace out, everybody,
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