{"id":192668,"date":"2018-12-13T15:44:51","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T21:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=192668"},"modified":"2018-12-13T16:18:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T22:18:41","slug":"oprah-winfrey-mother-choosing-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/oprah-winfrey-mother-choosing-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Oprah Winfrey: I told my dying mother ‘thank you’ for choosing life"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Oprah Winfrey\u2019s mother, Vernita Lee, passed away this year on Thanksgiving Day. She was 83. Oprah shared with People<\/a> about the time she was able to spend with her mother in her final days, time she called \u201csacred\u201d and \u201cblessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winfrey said of the experience, \u201cThis is the beauty of my life. There\u2019s not a thing that happens to me, that I don\u2019t look at it as a teaching, learning, experience. I knew my mother was dying. I got a call from my sister (Patricia, whom Lee placed for adoption in 1963) that she thought it was the end.\u201d Winfrey changed her work plans to make a surprise visit to her mother.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0<\/strong>Steve Jobs on how his mom chose life: \u2018I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t end up as an abortion\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Winfrey spent several days with her mother trying to find a way to say what she felt she needed to tell her. She asked herself, \u201c\u2018What is a way I can have this conversation about the end? How do I close it?\u2019 I just thought, \u2018What is the truth for me? What is it that I need to say?’\u201d<\/p>\n

What she was finally able to say to her mother was profound. Winfrey explained to People:<\/p>\n

What I said was, “Thank you. Thank you, because I know it\u2019s been hard for you. It was hard for you as a young girl having a baby, in Mississippi. No education. No training. No skills. Seventeen, you get pregnant with this baby. Lots of people would have told you to give that baby away. Lots of people would\u2019ve told you to abort that baby. You didn\u2019t do that. I know that was hard. <\/em><\/p>\n

I want you to know that no matter what, I know that you always did the best you knew how to do. And look how it turned out.”<\/em><\/p>\n

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.@Oprah<\/a> opens up to @people<\/a> about what she told her mother in their final moments together. Wow. pic.twitter.com\/3wIyQgd2gx<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Catherine Hadro (@CatSzeltner) December 13, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n