This past summer, you may or may not know,
but I got really sick.
I had some strange bacterial infection in my blood and
I almost died.
And I'm not telling you this because I want you
to feel sorry for me.
I'm telling you this because
the fact that I'm here right now is the
miracle
and I do not take
anything that happened for granted.
There are some very important people in this room tonight
that were with me in the hospital.
There's one very important woman who dragged me to the
hospital.
I don't even remember. I passed out on my bathroom
floor.
I woke up in the ICU.
And thank you, Siobhan.
She's
she's saved my life
and
daytime. My Kabbalah teacher.
I was. I was in an induced coma for 48
hours and
the only voice I heard was his.
I heard him say, squeeze my hand.
It's it
now.
Maybe some of you have had this experience.
I hope not,
But a couple of things I thought about when I
first
came became conscious and I saw my 6 incredible children
sitting around me.
By the way, I had to almost die to get
all my kids in one row.
I know it's kind of funny,
kind of not,
but they were all looking pretty scary
and I didn't understand what was going on.
But the first thing that went through my head was
my mother,
because my mother died of cancer.
And she was by herself.
And I was thinking, what if I left my children
that would destroy me, To leave my children at this
moment in their lives.
I wasn't thinking about me.
I was thinking about them.
But I was thinking about my mother,
like how scared she must have been
to know that she was going to leave us all
behind.
And you know, it takes these crazy
things that happen to us to make us realize what
other people go through.
The fear, the loneliness,
the lack of support.
And
yes, it's true.
I've lost a lot of friends,
a lot of people that I love near and dear
to my heart,
especially in the early 80s when AIDS swept through the
city like a mother.
Wind stormed and burned the city to ashes.
So many beautiful artists,
painters, writers, singers, beautiful, beautiful souls.
So of course, you know I paid tribute to them
during the show.
But
but it's in losing the things you love that you
grow to and appreciate the things that are around you,
that have life, that give you life,
that are full of life.
And
I am so grateful
for all of your support over the years
through thick and thin. I don't take any of this
for granted.