As usual, when Oprah shares a personal experience, her generous and insightful telling contains important lessons for us all in 2019. These lessons are about mustering the courage to admit the life of a loved one is nearing its end. They’re about bringing that knowledge into the open and acting on it, so the things that need to be said, will be said. They’re about creating an opening for words to come that will ring in our ears forever, close a life story and heal our wounds.

Two crucial decisions enabled Oprah and her mother to have one of the most meaningful conversations of their lives.