At 79, The Tragedy Of Goldie Hawn Is Beyond Heartbreaking

“I didn’t want to be a movie star, first of all. I just felt people in LA and the movie industry were all messed up; I didn’t want to be like that.”

Goldie Hawn stands as far more than another Hollywood name. She remains one of the final icons from a generation that could spark laughter across an entire room with just a wink, then shift in an instant to roles filled with deep sorrow. From the playful charm of Cactus Flower to the strong will she showed in Private Benjamin, she broke free from the tired image of the “dumb blonde” and became a true independent figure in American film.

Her laughter once brightened television stages, her presence brought warmth to award nights, and her determination inspired many actresses who came after her. Goldie Hawn represents more than talent alone. She stands as a symbol of freedom, inner strength, and the courage to follow her own direction even when the path carried plenty of unfair judgment.

For more than fifty years she balanced moments of brilliance and difficulty, shaping both her joy and her struggles into performances audiences could never forget. But now at seventy-nine, the challenges in her life have grown harsher than ever. Fading health, slipping memory, and painful truths that can no longer stay hidden weigh heavily on her.

Let us walk again through that shining yet difficult journey and understand why the struggles Goldie Hawn faces today feel so deeply moving. Goldie Jean Hawn entered the world on November 21, 1945, in Washington, D.C. She grew up in a home shaped by both creativity and quiet loss.

Her father, Edward Rutledge Hawn, worked as a band musician and conductor with German-English roots. He traced his family line back to Edward Rutledge, the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence. Her mother, Laura Steinhoff, came from Hungarian-Jewish immigrants and ran her own dance school.

Goldie and her sister Patty spent their early years without knowing they had once had an older brother named Edward Jr., who passed away before Patty was born. That family silence left a gentle but lasting impression on Goldie’s spirit. At only three years old, she first stepped into her mother’s ballet and tap studio.

By the time she turned ten, she had been selected to dance in The Nutcracker with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. That early moment under the stage lights marked her first real taste of performance. At nineteen she left her drama studies at American University so she could open and teach at her own ballet school.

This choice showed both her independent spirit and her desire to shape her own future. Surrounded by dance movements and music in those days, Goldie developed a deep instinct that refused to stay inside any single frame. She wanted more than simply following rhythms. She dreamed of a bigger stage where all eyes would turn toward her.

She soon discovered that larger world. In 1966, at twenty-one years old, Goldie Hawn had walked away from college to follow dance with only two hundred fifty dollars in her pocket. She spent two hundred of that on a small poodle and flew from the East Coast to California to perform at the Melody Land Theater, right across from Disneyland.

During that flight across the desert she wrote in her diary that anyone who doubted God’s existence needed only to sit where she was sitting. The sky stretched wide above her, the horizon seemed endless, and the future waited somewhere ahead, full of possibility. Not long afterward she took an offer to dance in Las Vegas.

That first trip quickly unfolded like a scene from a film. Her newly purchased 1959 Chevrolet convertible broke down in the middle of the desert, leaving her with just fifty dollars and her poodle stranded. She took a risk and accepted a ride from a hitchhiker, a Green Beret recently returned from Vietnam.

He drove her through uncertain stretches and gave her an unexpected feeling of safety. They shared one brief Sunday afternoon together before he guided her toward the Desert Inn. It became the first but certainly not the last time Goldie Hawn turned an uncertain situation into a story worth remembering.

Her early days in California opened the door to a role in the sitcom Good Morning World from 1967 to 1968. There she started being seen as the classic “dumb blonde,” a charming but shallow type. Her true breakthrough arrived with Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In from 1968 to 1973.

On national television she would giggle at just the right moment, dance in bikinis, or appear with her body painted in bright psychedelic colors. She quickly became a pop culture icon of the 1960s. Her film debut came in The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band in 1968.

Yet it was Cactus Flower in 1969 that truly made her a star. She played Walter Matthau’s young fiancée and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in her very first major film role. The “dumb blonde” label still followed her, but Goldie was already thinking about how to take charge of her own path.

Within only a few years, projects like Steven Spielberg’s The Sugarland Express in 1974 and Warren Beatty’s Shampoo in 1975 showed she was not only a reliable star but also one of the few women in Hollywood then who produced as well as acted in her own films. Movies such as Private Benjamin in 1980 and Wildcats in 1986 revealed her readiness to enter male-dominated worlds like the military or football and to reshape how female characters appeared on screen.

From a dancer working in New Jersey bars to a young woman nervous enough to seek therapy when fame first touched her, Goldie Hawn had grown into a powerful symbol of strength and independence in Hollywood. She lived out the words she would often share later: “Don’t tell me I can’t; just watch me.”

While many performers search for years to find their defining role, Goldie Hawn needed just one real opportunity and she grabbed it with fearless energy. In 1969, after her time on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, she took what looked like a modest supporting part in Cactus Flower. Few expected the character of Toni Simmons, a young woman both innocent and impulsive enough to consider ending her life over love, to create such a powerful impact.

The film was made for roughly three million dollars yet earned more than twenty-five point eight million in the United States, landing among the year’s top ten box office successes. When Oscar night arrived, Goldie Hawn’s name was announced for Best Supporting Actress after her first major film performance. The story around that golden statue made the evening even more special.

Goldie was not present at the ceremony because she was filming There’s a Girl in My Soup in London and had even forgotten the Oscars were happening. At four o’clock in the morning a phone call woke her with the news. Her parents were the first to hear.

On stage, Raquel Welch accepted the award for her from Fred Astaire. It was a sparkling, completely natural beginning, pure Goldie. By the 1970s she had become a regular presence in Hollywood.

Films like There’s a Girl in My Soup in 1970, Butterflies Are Free in 1972, and Shampoo in 1975 displayed her special mix of innocence and playful mischief. The director of Butterflies Are Free remembered how Goldie often improvised lines on set, leaving the crew laughing out loud. No one wanted to stop filming and risk losing that natural spark.

The 1980s became her golden period. Private Benjamin in 1980 marked a major turning point. Made for nine point two million dollars, it brought in nearly sixty-nine point eight million and stood as one of the year’s biggest comedies.

Goldie not only starred but also produced the film, holding firm to her vision even when studios doubted it. They claimed no one would pay to see a woman-led army comedy. When the first director left, saying the script had anti-Semitic undertones, Goldie quickly brought in Howard Zieff.

That choice turned a potential failure into a huge success and earned her Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress. In 1982, Best Friends was budgeted between fifteen and nineteen million dollars and earned thirty-six point eight million, showing her continued box office strength. Director Norman Jewison said plainly, “If Goldie’s in, I’ll make the film.”

She later described it as the most mature role of her career, mixing experience with sharp humor. Successes continued steadily: Swing Shift in 1984, Overboard in 1987 where she and Kurt Russell moved from colleagues to life partners, and Bird on a Wire in 1990 alongside Mel Gibson. Her biggest commercial triumph came in 1996 with The First Wives Club.

Made for twenty-six million dollars, it earned one hundred eighty-one million worldwide and became the highest-grossing film of her career. Few people know the script was first turned down by all three lead actresses because they found it too anti-male. Goldie pushed for changes to balance the humor with real emotional depth.

Before shooting began, she, Diane Keaton, and Bette Midler made a rare agreement that none of them would try to steal focus from the others. Across her career, films featuring Goldie Hawn have earned more than two billion dollars at the domestic box office when adjusted for inflation. That remarkable total shows she was never merely a temporary sensation but a lasting star who turned simple blonde roles into rich, memorable characters and left a deep mark on American cinema.

The greatest heights of her career brought Goldie Hawn both bright fame and real wealth, yet they also carried hidden pressures that only insiders could fully understand. After the intense lights of the stage and the constant travel, she returned home to face personal decisions that sometimes stirred controversy. It was at this meeting point between public success and private life that her personal story began revealing moments both tender and dramatic.

In her younger years the actress lived through a marriage that felt both romantic and complicated with Gus Trikonis. They met in 1966 when Goldie was still largely unknown and Gus already had a name in entertainment circles. He had played Indio, a member of the Sharks gang in the 1961 film West Side Story, danced alongside Debbie Reynolds in The Unsinkable Molly Brown in 1964, and performed with Elvis Presley during his famous 1968 Comeback Special.

They shared the same birthday, November 21. Their common passion for dance, music, and the free artistic life brought them together quickly. In 1969, right as Cactus Flower opened and won Goldie her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, they held a small wedding in Honolulu, Hawaii, on May 16.

At that time Goldie was rising fast toward stardom while Gus began stepping back from performing to focus on directing. But the Hollywood spotlight does not always support quiet home life. Goldie’s busy filming schedule and growing fame stood in contrast with Gus’s efforts to rebuild his own career, slowly widening the distance between them.

Goldie later shared with People magazine in 1976 that she felt worn out and dreamed of going somewhere like India to meditate. On April 9, 1973, they separated but did not divorce right away because neither wanted to remarry immediately. Everything changed in the summer of 1975 when Goldie met musician Bill Hudson on a flight and felt an instant connection.

On New Year’s Eve that same year she filed for divorce from Gus and became engaged to Bill on the same day. Gus asked for seventy-five thousand dollars under California’s community property laws. Goldie admitted she felt hurt because he had never supported her financially even for one day, but the legal process ended in June 1976, opening the way for her to marry Bill one month later.

After the divorce Gus went on to direct several action and exploitation films during the 1970s and 1980s. He later contributed to episodes of Baywatch, Quantum Leap, and Beauty and the Beast. In 1978 he married costume designer Barbara Andrews. They had a son named Nicholas and stayed together until her death in 2012.

On that important flight Goldie Hawn met Bill Hudson, the good-looking guitarist from the pop group The Hudson Brothers. At the time she was still legally married to Gus Trikonis. According to Bill’s memoir Two Versions: The Other Side of Fame and Family, Goldie surprisingly invited Gus to join their very first date.

Hudson remembered that evening did not go well, but their second meeting took a much more intense turn. At a Rolling Stones concert a tray of white powder was passed around and Bill claimed Goldie took part happily. That night ended with a twelve-hour conversation in bed where they both admitted their love, even though she was still married on paper.

Goldie has always rejected any suggestion of infidelity and called Bill’s stories the words of a bitter former husband. Just months later, on New Year’s Eve 1975, she got engaged to Bill and filed for divorce from Gus on the very same day. Their wedding took place on July 3, 1976, in Takoma Park, Maryland. It was a small and private ceremony.

That same year their first son Oliver arrived on September 7, 1976. Their daughter Kate followed on April 19, 1979. In the early days their family lived with a free-spirited, artistic feeling, yet behind the happy pictures small fractures soon began to show.

Goldie’s career kept climbing in Hollywood while Bill found it harder to keep his place in music. Goldie later spoke openly, saying some men simply cannot handle it when their wives become more successful than they are, a pattern that appeared in both of her first two marriages. By 1980 Bill filed for divorce, which was completed in 1982.

Tensions grew stronger when he accused Goldie of wanting an open marriage and of purposely keeping him away from their children after she met Kurt Russell. He even claimed she suggested it would look better if the public thought he had left the kids. The conflict flared again in 2015 when Oliver posted an Instagram message that read “Happy abandonment day on Father’s Day.”

Bill responded in the Daily Mail, saying Oliver and Kate were no longer his children and asking them to stop using the Hudson name. That action froze their already delicate connection and left behind years of accusations and distance that continued to affect the family.

If Goldie Hawn’s romantic life were written as a Hollywood script, the beginning of her story with Kurt Russell would serve as perfect foreshadowing. They first crossed paths in 1968 while making The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band. Goldie was twenty-one and Kurt was only sixteen, so to her he seemed sweet but far too young.

Both were already in other relationships, so nothing developed beyond polite professionalism. Goldie later told BBC Radio 4 that both of them had promised they would never date another actor. And yet, as life often shows, never say never.

They did not reconnect until 1983 on the set of Swing Shift. This time both were single. Goldie had become an established star and mother of two young children while Kurt had grown through several strong roles.

What truly won Goldie over was not any smooth line but the natural, effortless way Kurt played with Oliver and Kate when they visited the set. She told People he was amazing with the kids. Their first date after fifteen years apart turned out unforgettable.

They had some drinks then decided on impulse to look at a new house. Without a key they found their way inside anyway and ended up being discovered by police in what amounted to a break-in. It was a start as funny and spontaneous as the love story that would last more than four decades.

From co-stars they grew into partners slowly but with real strength. They made a shared decision never to marry, not because of any lack of commitment but out of respect for personal freedom and the daily choice to stay together. As Goldie explained in 2016, if you are independent, have enough money, and value your freedom, not marrying gives you the sense that you are together because you truly want to be, not because you are bound by papers.

Their family formed a beautiful blended picture. Goldie brought Oliver and Kate, Kurt had his son Boston Russell, and in 1986 they welcomed their own son Wyatt Russell. Though not all shared the same blood, the children grew up surrounded by love, support, and plenty of laughter.

They created memories together both in daily life and on screen in films like Overboard in 1987 and The Christmas Chronicles in 2018 and 2020. For more than forty years Goldie and Kurt have represented lasting love in a town where relationships often fall apart under pressure. They mark Valentine’s Day 1983 as their personal anniversary.

As Goldie once said, that is true romance because every morning she chooses him and he chooses her. If the love story between Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell forms the longest and most beautiful chapter of their lives, then their children represent its brightest continuation. Each child carries a unique personality and direction, yet all share the legacy of a family held together by love, laughter, and strength through every difficulty.

The first to step into the spotlight was Oliver Hudson, born on September 7, 1976. He has become a familiar television face through roles in Rules of Engagement, Nashville, and The Cleaning Lady. Oliver also serves as the family’s top comedian.

Kate once joked that he is even funnier than she is. Off camera he co-hosts the podcast Sibling Revelry with Kate, where they share family stories with such honesty that listeners sometimes feel surprised. In his personal life Oliver and his wife, actress Erinn Bartlett, are raising three children: Wilder Brooks, Bodhi Hawn, and Little Rio Laura.

His favorite activity is playfully embarrassing the kids whenever he can. To Goldie, Oliver is not only a wonderful father but also the one who keeps their home bright with laughter. Next comes Kate Hudson, born on April 19, 1979, a movie star whose smile clearly comes from her mother.

Her performance as Penny Lane in Almost Famous earned her a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination and led to popular films like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Bride Wars, and Something Borrowed. Yet away from the cameras Kate has always shown deep respect for both Goldie and Kurt. On Kurt’s seventieth birthday she paid tribute to the courage and confidence he had given her.

As a mother of three children, each with a different father, Kate follows a principle Goldie taught her: never speak badly about your child’s father. It seems like a simple guideline, yet it creates a strong foundation of security and love in raising children. Boston Russell, born on February 16, 1980, is Kurt’s son with Season Hubley and the quietest member of the family.

He has chosen a life mostly away from Hollywood attention yet remains a steady, loyal presence. Kate still remembers the first time she met Boston as a child and realized Kurt would be an important man in her life while Boston would become a special brother. The youngest, Wyatt Russell, born on July 10, 1986, is Goldie and Kurt’s son and a natural continuation of the family’s artistic tradition.

From 22 Jump Street to his standout role as John Walker in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Wyatt has created his own space in the industry. He will soon appear alongside Kurt in Apple TV’s Monsterverse series. Outside of acting he is a devoted father to two boys, Buddy born in 2021 and Boone Joseph born in 2024.

He often speaks with admiration about Kurt’s role as a grandfather, saying he teaches the kids lessons that Wyatt himself still needs to learn. Goldie once observed that parenting means raising your children so they know how to raise theirs well, a continuing chain of care and love within the Russell-Hawn home. Oliver brings the humor, Kate carries the warmth, Boston offers quiet loyalty, and Wyatt brings dedication to the next generation.

They may all be part of Hollywood, but when the doors close they are simply a family where love and respect always take center stage. For Goldie Hawn, family has remained her true safe place, the source of laughter, affection, and bonds that hold steady no matter what happens beyond the home.

Yet Hollywood itself was never as gentle as the world inside the Russell-Hawn house. Behind the bright lights she also faced people and situations that left lasting weight on her heart. Although she worked hard to keep a graceful public image and avoided open conflicts, Goldie has never hidden that certain colleagues made her working days difficult through disrespect, power struggles, or quiet undermining.

Now at seventy-nine she has finally named six people she holds the strongest negative feelings toward, not out of revenge but to share part of the honest story from her long and demanding time in a tough industry. In the eyes of the public Kirk Douglas appeared as a legendary screen figure, a symbol of strength and classic charm. But in Goldie Hawn’s own experience that image hid real arrogance.

Even after her Oscar victory Kirk continued to treat her more like an ornament than an equal. He would overdo gentlemanly gestures, interrupt her while she spoke, and brush aside her creative ideas during projects they shared. The final moment came during a film development meeting.

While Goldie was presenting her thoughts Kirk suddenly cut in with a belittling joke that made everyone in the room uncomfortable. She closed her notebook, stood up, and left, never returning. From then on their connection stayed only on the surface.

Goldie would later speak warmly about his son Michael Douglas but avoided mentioning Kirk himself. For her it served as a lasting lesson never to let anyone reduce her to an old-fashioned image just to suit their own view. At the height of his influence Warren Beatty was not only a major star but also known for his charm and many relationships.

With significant power in Hollywood at the time he repeatedly approached Goldie with flattering words, overly familiar gestures backstage, and carefully arranged private invitations. Goldie, wise enough to see beneath the surface, politely turned down every advance. When she rejected him, Beatty’s attitude cooled and he quietly spread word that she was difficult and not right for certain parts.

A few opportunities faded because of it, but she never responded publicly. Instead she held to her rule of never mixing work with power games. Years later when they met again at a big event Goldie simply offered a cool smile and walked on without looking back.

It was a quiet statement that some doors should stay closed so better ones can open. On screen Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase created a popular romantic comedy pair that helped make Foul Play a box office success in 1978. Behind the scenes, however, the mood felt completely different.

Chevy often ignored the script to improvise freely, pushed the director to go along with him, and showed little respect for the crew, especially those handling lighting, makeup, and assistance. For Goldie the experience was even harder. He would cut into her dialogue during filming, make mocking comments, and constantly suggest changes that gave his character more attention than hers.

Though she stayed professional and finished the movie, her disappointment showed clearly. When Foul Play became a big hit and fans hoped for another team-up, Goldie firmly refused every suggestion to work with Chevy again. From that point their relationship remained distant, left behind with the completed film.

At first the idea of pairing Goldie Hawn with Bill Murray in a comedy project looked like a dream match for audiences, bringing together two of Hollywood’s sharpest comic minds. Yet the collaboration began falling apart right at the first table read. Murray arrived more than an hour late with a casual attitude, mocked others in the room, and openly criticized the script.

When Goldie performed a serious emotional scene Murray sneered and asked why she didn’t try acting like she had ever done drama before. The comment felt both disrespectful and dismissive of her abilities. Without hesitation Goldie closed her script, stood up, and walked out.

The next day she officially left the project. From then on she set a clear personal rule for choosing work: she would value peace and respect on set more than any big chance to collaborate with those who created chaos. The incident happened at a mental health fundraising gala, a cause Goldie had supported with genuine passion for many years.

As she stepped onto the stage the room grew quiet except for Sean Penn at a VIP table. He rolled his eyes, sighed loudly, and after she finished speaking muttered that she should just stick to giggling. Goldie did not react with anger.

She simply smiled, raised her glass toward the audience, and left the event quietly. From that day forward she kept a clear boundary with Penn, choosing no public contact and no professional work together. For her it was not merely a personal slight but an insult to the values and message she had worked hard to champion.

Women deserve to be taken seriously and not trapped inside images others try to force on them. That particular audition felt like an important chance for Goldie Hawn to step beyond the Hollywood habit of seeing her only as a light comedian and never trusting her with dramatic work. She delivered her lines with care and hope to show her full range.

Suddenly Dustin Hoffman, sitting in the front row, interrupted in front of the producers and everyone else. He remarked coolly that she was still performing like it was a sitcom. The room responded with an awkward laugh while Goldie finished the scene with professionalism.

The following morning she sent her thanks and withdrew from the project. Her reason was straightforward: she would not struggle for respect from people who had already decided she was only a joke. For Goldie that experience became a strong reminder never to let others decide her value, especially those who judged her through a limited view from the very beginning.

Looking back at the six people she chose to distance herself from, a clear pattern stands out. All were influential men in Hollywood, yet each showed condescension, manipulation, or quiet efforts to undermine her. In every situation Goldie avoided loud public fights.

Instead she stepped away, protected her own peace, and preserved both her career and her self-respect. For her, staying steady, honoring herself, and responding with calm sometimes proved the strongest response because it left the other person unable to reach her spirit or damage her reputation. She needed no further proof than her continued success and the lasting affection from audiences.

If you had been in her position, would you have walked away quietly as Goldie did, or chosen to speak out directly? Despite the difficult professional moments she experienced, Goldie Hawn has kept an image of grace and humor that even her critics have had to respect.

At the same time she leaves behind a glowing body of work, a rare talent for mixing comedy with real emotional layers and creating characters that felt both delightful and deeply human. From her Oscar-winning performance in Cactus Flower to popular successes like Private Benjamin, Overboard, and The First Wives Club, she set an example of lively, authentic acting.

Goldie’s influence reaches well beyond the movies. It lives in the choices she made, the principles she followed in her work and life. She had the courage to turn down harmful projects, maintained a relationship lasting more than four decades with Kurt Russell without needing marriage, and raised a thriving, multi-generational family.

She has encouraged younger actresses to claim their own voice, to persist through hardship, and to keep reinventing themselves inside a demanding industry. After more than half a century of winning hearts with her bright smile and natural comic energy, Goldie Hawn at seventy-nine still carries a special presence whenever she appears in public.

At the 2025 Academy Awards she once again drew all the attention, though this time the focus carried more worry than simple admiration. That evening she walked the Dolby Theater red carpet hand in hand with her longtime partner Kurt Russell, the golden couple of Hollywood still radiating warmth together. On stage she joined Andrew Garfield to present the awards for Best Animated Short and Best Animated Feature Film, and the mood grew gentle.

Garfield spoke about how she had once brought joy to his late mother. Goldie responded with a slightly confused but humorous comment about feeling lucky to make movies, which brought a soft laugh even though her words were not completely clear. Then came an unexpected moment.

As she prepared to read from the teleprompter she gently took Garfield’s hand and said, “Sweetheart, could you read that? I can’t read it. I’m completely blind. Cataracts.” Her honest admission brought both laughter and quiet concern from the audience. Still, she calmly opened the envelope and correctly announced the Best Animated Feature winner, Flow.

It showed that her stage instincts remained sharp. On social media reactions varied. Some saw it simply as a vision problem while others expressed worry about her overall health or possible medication effects.

For more than twenty years Goldie’s public appearances have become less frequent. After her strong period from the 1970s through the 1990s she appeared in Town & Country in 2001 and The Banger Sisters in 2002, then took a fifteen-year break before returning in Snatched in 2017 with Amy Schumer. More recently audiences have seen her as Mrs. Claus in the Netflix films The Christmas Chronicles one and two alongside Kurt Russell.

The last time she presented at the Oscars was in 2014, and the final time she co-hosted an awards show was the 2018 SAG Awards with her daughter Kate Hudson. The 2025 Oscars became more than just a night to celebrate cinema. They offered a rare chance for fans to see Hollywood’s beloved comedy star back on a major stage and to realize that after everything Goldie Hawn is still wonderfully herself, sincere, witty, and brave enough to share even her vulnerable moments.

Goldie Hawn’s life shows clearly that behind every laugh there are also quiet spaces. From a small girl stepping out of her mother’s dance studio she rose to become a cinematic legend, an Oscar winner, and a performer whose work lives on in the memories of many generations. Yet her path was never only about success. It also included broken marriages, experiences of disrespect inside a biased industry, and later years when her health, memory, and even her confidence on stage faced real tests.

At seventy-nine Goldie Hawn may not appear on screen as often, but she stays bright in the minds of audiences as a symbol of freedom, humor, and quiet endurance. Time has left its traces on her voice and her eyes, yet that smile and that spirit have never faded. Her story also reminds us of the human vulnerability carried by those who once looked invincible beneath Hollywood’s lights.

Perhaps that very vulnerability is what makes her feel closer to us, more real, and even more deeply loved. If there is a particular film, a memorable line, or simply one unforgettable smile from Goldie Hawn that stays with you, please share it in the comments below. In the end, what keeps a legend alive is not only awards or box office numbers. It is the way she made us laugh, moved us to tears, or helped us feel understood during life’s most difficult moments.