The Carrie Fisher tributes continue to be loving and heartfelt: after Monday’s messages from Mark Hamill and Billie Lourd, today Joely Fisher—Carrie’s half-sister through father Eddie—published hers in the Hollywood Reporter, and in addition to calling Carrie her “hero,” she predicted that her sister would have wanted to write about life in the Trump era:
My sister would have wanted a dramatic exit; she just might have wished for another couple of decades before making one. She told me she wanted to see this political horror play out. She likely would have crafted a sharp, piercing novel about her non-conventional goings on with this national nightmare as the backdrop. But mostly, she would have wanted us to celebrate her life, her words and for Billie to be whole. In time she will be. She is smart and soulful and magic.
Of course, it’s fruitless to predict what someone would have done, but such speculation from Carrie Fisher’s sister amplifies the great loss of her fierce voice. Carrie was a lifelong Democrat who campaigned for Obama and spoke out against George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Trump. Just weeks before she died, in a November appearance on Today, she said she wrote The Princess Diarist “to distract from the whole Trump thing,” and rolled her eyes. “People wanted to talk about something else.” She also dedicated many incredible tweets to Trump, including:
Joely Fisher also, of course, remembered how much she loved and admired her sister, writing that “you all lost Princess Leia and Carrie Fisher; I lost my hero, my mentor, my mirror.” She described that the Fishers (progeny Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher) grew up next door to the Fishers (progeny Connie Stevens and Eddie Fisher) by accident after her mother unknowingly happened to buy a house neighboring Reynolds’, and wrote that she knew Reynolds would have a hard time if Carrie passed:
During our transcontinental chat before Carrie’s fateful flight from London to L.A., we promised we’d spend Christmas together. It’s a promise we kept, although not in a way either of us had anticipated. Throughout the holiday, I sat by her side in a hospital room filled with a cacophony of sounds made by the machines keeping her barely alive. Debbie, of course, was there as well. She told me that she’d been praying for more time. More time for Carrie, for herself and for Connie. I knew if those prayers weren’t answered, Debbie might very well join her daughter.
Of course, Debbie loved nothing more than the spotlight. And I can imagine Carrie is having a laugh right now, rolling her eyes at the kind of crazy ending that only happens in Shakespearean tragedies … and Fisher novels. Carrie’s mom has once again stolen the show, with the ultimate “twirled up” joke (see Postcards From the Edge).
Absent more of Carrie Fisher’s wonderful words, these kinds of tributes remind us of how special she was.
DISCUSSION
When I heard Debbie died, one of the first things I thought after the “OMG I can’t believe this!” is that Carrie would be thinking “There goes Mom stealing my thunder.”