Patricia Neal
Patricia Neal (20 January 1926 â 8 August 2010) was an American actress. In 1953 she married British author Roald Dahl; they had five children together.
Quotes
[edit]"Dealing with Oliviaâs Death"
[edit]- The phone rang. It was the doctor. He said, âMrs. Dahl, Oliviaâs dead [from measles]. Did you hear me? I said Olivia is dead.â I said, yes, thank you. I couldnât believe how cold he was. Roald came back from the hospital and he cried. Oh, he cried. He had seen her dead. I unfortunately never did. My sisters-in-law talked me out of it. I wish they hadnât. I stayed up that first night just looking out the window. Your love is dead, and the sun still comes up. Itâs just so sad.
- I was the strong one at that point. I donât want to brag about myself, but Iâve never seen anything like it. Roald really almost went crazy. I held everything together. I cooked all day and went on. Of course 34 years ago anything like a survivorsâ support group was virtually unheard of. You had to pull yourself together. I loved Olivia, loved her, but my God, I had two more children. I had to go on.
- Over the years, I found that talking about Olivia helped immeasurably. Roald... couldnât say a word. It was locked inside him.
- Part of my healing came by having another child. No one could replace Olivia, but a new child would begin to heal the emptiness. In a letter to my doctor in California soon after Oliviaâs death, I wrote, âI absolutely believe in a soul. And I long to let her go, to free her and hope she will be born again to me.â Two years later, Ophelia was born and a year after that, Lucy.
- Over the years, I did other things to help keep Oliviaâs memory alive, donating a silver cup to her school each year to be awarded to the best high jumper, as she was in 1962. And when I played Olivia Walton in the TV film that preceded The Waltons television series, I insisted that my characterâs name not be changed to âMaryâ as the producers wanted.
- I keep a few mementos of Olivia around the house. One is a letter that she wrote when she was about 6 to a family friend. It says, âDear Sheila, Thank you for the bubbly gum. I hope you are well. The bubbly was the most exciting present I ever had and I can blow bubbles... Love, Olivia. XXXXX.â Thatâs my Olivia. Isnât she a honey of a girl?
External links
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