Thanks, Catherine O’Hara, for the joy and the funny |
As if January didn't feel long enough (546 days and counting, it seems), we ended the month with the death of someone who always brought joy to whatever she did.
My mom spent a lot of years working as the head housekeeper at a motel, and sometimes she'd bring me along to work when school was out or I was ill and set me up in a vacant room with a TV. I think that's probably where I first came across Catherine O'Hara in "SCTV." While I was a fan of others from that show, O'Hara always was the bright spark for me, and finding her later in other television shows and in movies like "Beetlejuice" ("The Banana Boat Song" was genius) just deepened my appreciation of her and her talents.
I spent this weekend watching "Schitt's Creek" again (I still have about another season to go at this point), and will probably cast around for some of her many movies (including "A Mighty Wind" and "Best in Show") just so I can bask in the brilliance of someone who was full of joy and shared her light with so many.
I connected so much with O'Hara not just because in some sense she was my emotional support Canadian, but because of a couple of lessons from my mom on ways to cope with hard times: Find the joy, and find the funny.
With so much darkness in the world........