I was shocked and saddened yesterday to hear of Nora Ephron's death. What an amazing writer, director, and all around talented woman she was.
I first "met" her in the summer of 1987. I was pregnant with my son Mark and came across the movie "Heartburn" on TV one Saturday afternoon. At first it was a sweet love story. The couple: Rachel and Mark (played by Meryl Streep & Jack Nicholson) gets married, laugh a lot, have dinner parties with their best friends and life seems wonderful. Then while waddling around with her second pregnancy, Rachel discovers Mark is having an affair. While watching her be hurt, angry, screaming, and sobbing on the small TV screen, I bawled my eyes out. Nothing is lower, to me, than a husband cheating on his pregnant wife! And since I was sitting there, largely pregnant myself, my hormones kicked into overdrive. The Ronald came into the family room a couple of times and looked at me as if he should call 911. I guess he'd never seen such a spectacle, such a complete breakdown by a woman before. I swore at him and said he better not EVER do that to me, or...or....I don't remember what I said after that, but you can be assured it wasn't something nice. 25 years later, I still love that movie. Why? I just love a really good tear jerker every now and then.
Then of course she wrote Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally, and Sleepless in Seattle, to name a few. When her book "I Feel Bad about My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman," came out, I immediately bought it in hardcover. I loved it and have loaned it out many times (always using my "library borrow cards," so I can keep track of who has it!)
I even wrote to Ms. Ephron after I read her "Neck" book, telling her how much I enjoyed it, etc.etc.etc...and how I'm a writer, too. (Bet she never received letters saying THAT before. Ha!) She didn't write back, but that was okay. I surely didn't think she would.
Thank you, Nora, for giving us Harry Burns and Sally Albright, Mark Forman and Rachel Samstat, Sam Baldwin and Annie Reed, and Karen Silkwood. We'll never forget you, or your wonderful characters.
What about you? Do you like Nora Ephron's books and/or movies? Which is your favorite?
"I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible." -- Harry Burns, When Harry Met Sally.
