Thank you Nora Ephron

I am sad to learn that Nora Ephron has left this earth. I am sad the way you are sad to hear a friend has gone. No, I was not friends with her nor did I ever have the chance to meet her but I am grateful for her life and feel her loss.  Nora Ephron was brave enough to speak the truth and talented enough to make us laugh.

We have recently been told we cannot have it all, in case you have been living under a rock check out Atlantic Monthly. Well Nora Ephron was a writer, director, mother, wife, there didn't seem to be much she couldn't do - and if she made a mistake doing it she seemed to try again, and again until she got it right, until she excelled at it, and some say she revolutionized and set the bar for many directors, screenwriters, essayists and novelists. She well may have had it all, at least she gave it her all.

She made me feel "normal". Her books and movies kept me company in lonesome times and on rainy Saturday nights.  I would be embarrassed to tell you how may times I have seen When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, and Julie and Julia.  I have seen them so many times, not because I am crazy or have a lot of free time on my hands, or simply always procrastinating,  but because the dialogue is so good I never tire of hearing it and the characters are people I could see myself being friends with, just like Nora Ephron.

Tom Hanks wrote, "She lifted us all with wisdom and wit mixed with love for us and love for life." Listen, if you don't believe me, you know Tom Hanks doesn't get it wrong. She overcame adversity in her life and made something of herself. She had spunk, and heart, and wasn't afraid to go for it, and to laugh at herself along the way.

In 1976 she told Newsday, I have always thought it was a terrible shame that the women's movement didn't realize how much easier it was to reach people by making them laugh than by shaking a fist and saying don't you see how oppressed you are."

Thank you, Nora Ephron, for making me laugh.

Magda
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/06/nora-ephron-1941-2012.html
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/e/nora_ephron/index.html