Dana Reeve
Christopher believed that to overcome any adversity, no matter how challenging, you need to go forward each day with strength, determination and compassion.Collection: Strength
I made a vow to Chris when we married that I'd love him and I'd be with him in sickness and in health and I did OK with that.Collection: Health
Working on problems and self-examination is a sign of strength.Collection: Strength
I think the idea of time travel is very seductive.Collection: Travel
With grief, you know, the only way to get through it is through it.
Life is full of risks, and you don't want to raise someone who's afraid of taking risks, either physically or emotionally.
Sacrifice always seems to imply a bitterness attached to it. But I don't feel bitter about the choices I've made. Yes, I sacrifice a job because I made certain family decisions, but I don't regret it.
I would like to record. I would like to do some cabaret acts.
I am an actress and I do have to make a living.
But TV and movie schedules are always easier than a theater schedule, if you have a family.
As a caregiver, I always thought I had empathy for Chris's situation, and certainly one family member's disability affects the whole family dynamic in myriad ways. But as I go through various tests and discomforts and uncertainty about the future that cancer can bring, I feel a strong, visceral connection to what Chris went through.
I've learned a lot about grief, that it really is something that goes in cycles.
Chris and I used to say, when he had his accident, 'Well, this is probably the worst thing that's ever happened to either one of us, but at least we had each other to go through it with.'
I am working as a co-host on a show called, 'Lifetime Live.' It's on the Lifetime cable network. My co-host is Deborah Roberts. She's a news correspondent with 20/20. We are billed as a news and information show. It's fun.
In the mornings I drop my son off at school and then head to work. I am done at work by 2:00 P. M. and can head home.
I don't live in the city, I don't work in a high-risk environment, and I am not a smoker. So it was never anything that would occur to me that I would get lung cancer, but the more I have learned about lung cancer is that it is becoming much more random, and it is striking women who are under 50 and are non-smokers and not in a risk environment.
I believe that the healthy people go to therapy. It is the real lunatics who avoid it.
The public knows me through my life, which is not comical. But I feel very at home in comedy.
I feel freedom in singing and performing.
I took the marriage vows very seriously, as did Chris. You're there - sickness, health - I mean, really. And you don't take those vows until you can say it and mean it.
Chris, boy, was he ever resilient, and was he ever someone who would never give up and had tremendous discipline, and he set goals and met them.
I think Chris' favorite role was in 'Remains of the Day,' which was the Merchant Ivory film that he shot not long before his accident, a couple years before. He loved working with Merchant Ivory.
Chris' absence is very much felt. There's just a huge void in our home life.
I value my family more than anything. That's always paramount.
There's not a lot of creativity when you're dealing with a disability, there's not a lot of freedom and spontaneity.
I'm definitely not a saint.
Christopher pushed the boundaries beyond anything anyone could expect from any human being.
Superman is a traditional archetype in our culture, this all-powerful but benign doer of good, protector and friend. If he could succumb to the frailties of mortal man, what's to become of the rest of us?
If I feel down, I can do what I've always done - go see a friend, walk the dog, have a cup of tea.
Chris had the unique and rare opportunity to be shown during his lifetime how many friends he has and how much they care.
There are moments when the grief comes bubbling up. The first time I saw Chris's chair empty, that was really hard. And it was hard when I started folding up some of his sweaters that I so imagine him wearing.
There's a formula Chris and I used all the time. When you least feel like it, do something for someone else. You forget about your own situation. It gives you a purpose, as opposed being sorrowful and lonely. It makes me feel better when things are too hard for me.
Mv mother was so literate and literary.
Chris didn't only leave a legacy of work. He left a legacy of love.
I get little moments all the time, all I want to do is call my mom.
Chris was very comfortable in the public eye and thrived in that kind of environment. I, less so.
Hope is a real thing. It's not pie in the sky.
I'm a big girl. I prioritize. I want to be acting, I want to be singing, but there will be time for that.
I'm a very famous wife but I'm still plodding along in my career.
We both felt it was important for us to remain a couple. I didn't want to be just his nurse.
I thought, if I was going to date an actor, I wanted a real actor.
We have home movies of Chris playing the piano with Will on his lap. One of the things that made my life so full was putting Will to bed and hearing Chris downstairs improvising.
Some of the choices in life will choose you. How you face those choices, these turns in the road, with what kind of attitude, more than the choices themselves, is what will define the context of your life.Collection: Attitude
Be brave. Be open-minded. Be kind. Be forgiving. Be generous. Be optimistic. Be grateful for the many unexpected lessons you will learn. Find the joy inside the hardship. It's there. I assure you. And, too, be open to inspiration from unlikely sources.Collection: Inspiration
I learned a long time ago life just isn't fair, so you better stop expecting it to be.Collection: Long
You have to celebrate the gifts because life is so hard and I think once you realize life's gonna be hard, the good stuff really comes forward.Collection: Thinking
It is so important as a caregiver not to become so enmeshed in the role that you lose yourself. It's neither good for you nor your loved one.Collection: Important
When you least feel like it, do something for someone else. You forget about your own situation. It gives you a purpose, as opposed being sorrowful and lonely.Collection: Lonely
We have become accustomed to living our life with joy amidst pain and challenges.Collection: Pain
Most of the time I think we're really pretty positive and optimistic, and we're so lucky to have the life that we have and had with him.Collection: Optimistic