Meredith Vieira & husband Richard M. Cohen are the December/January cover of the upcoming AARP The Magazine discussing how their family deals with Richard’s MS, their extraordinary marriage, family and more.
Matt Lauer on Meredith’s sense of teamwork
“Meredith likes to be part of an ensemble. She rises to her best in that setting. I can’t tell you the number of times I’d go out to an interview, come back to my BlackBerry and the first message would be a text from Meredith saying, ‘Fabulous job today.’”
Priscilla Warner, Meredith’s childhood friend, on the couple’s romantic relationship
“How many people our age say I’m going to leave and spend a lot of time with my spouse? You don’t give up a very glamorous, stimulating job to spend time with a spouse unless you have a glamorous, stimulating, exciting spouse. They both look at each other that way.”
** Quotes from Meredith Vieira **
On pondering whether to leave TV completely
“I thought I’d have a eureka moment. I really did. I thought I’d suddenly go, ‘Oh, I know what I want to be!’ And I didn’t. I didn’t come close.”
On living with Richard’s MS
“He has very bad days. He’s so funny; he’ll say ‘I’m in control. I hate my life but I’m in control. It’s good that he vents. He’s having a [very bad] day, and what is he going to do, pretend that he’s not? But then he’ll soldier on.”
“He said to me a million times, ‘I thought I would beat this. I thought I would be the one. He’s feeling like he’s not the one.”
“They (the caregivers) are embarrassed. They don’t want to put people out.”
“People want to help, so when we’ve needed friends in times of any crisis, we ask. And I think it’s really important for caregivers not to feel that it’s all on you at any given time, because it’s not.”
On why Richard and the family have not employed an aide to assist Richard
“Having somebody there would drive him crazy, I think. He hates hovering.”
On leaving 60 Minutes and igniting a firestorm about mothers in the workplace
“It was about our particular family and our needs. The rest kind of happened around me.”
** Quotes from Richard M. Cohen**
On living with long-term conditions
“If there is anything I’ve learned it’s that progressive diseases progress….you just know on every level that it’s a one-way trip. You’ve never going to cross back over.”
“People feel oddly responsible for their illnesses. It makes no sense, but I sometimes blame myself because I’m sick. “
“There are so many different diseases, and they do different things to your body. But the coping issues that go with these illnesses are remarkably similar.”
“I deny the certainty of possible outcomes. It really frees you up.”
On trying medicines for a condition with no known treatments
“I don’t believe in any of that stuff. But I do it because I don’t want to ever look back and regret that I didn’t try something. Or try everything.”