Bravo, Sheldon Cooper! (RIP, Mrs.Wolowitz)

Mrs. Wolowitz, Howard’s Mother on the show “The Big Bang Theory,” died last Thursday night.

 

And the really sad thing: Carol Ann Susi, the Brooklyn-born actress who played her (I should say, “mouthed her”), died with an aggressive cancer back in November of 2014.

 

Why I, a newbie to the show, am so sad, I really don’t know.

 

When I read how young she was (62) and saw her picture on Internet, it suddenly (and sadly) hit home – this was someone’s loved one; this was someone’s sister, friend, co-worker, neighbor and mentor. She wasn’t just this annoying, obnoxious voice that bellowed “Hoooow-ARD” every Thursday night at 8 o’clock.

 

She was this lovely, caring, hysterically funny, intelligent woman (according to the various write-ups that I read) that suddenly got diagnosed with an aggressive cancer and was gone – as suddenly as she was diagnosed.

 

So, what is it about the inequity and suddenness of this that bothers me so?

 

I didn’t know her.

 

And if the truth be told, her whiney, nasally, Brooklyn-bred, Jewish voice grated on my last nerve and made me cringe every time I heard her bawl, “Hooooow-ARD!”

 

And yet I, like many others, laughed heartily each time she did so.

 

Carol Ann Susi, a virtual stranger to me, died on November 11, 2014 and I feel sad.

 

And I can’t help but think that now Howard Wolowitz, the brilliant (and often puerile) aerospace engineer, whose Mother pampered and “smothered him” excessively is now Motherless and somehow less anchored than before her death.

 

But far be it for the writers Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro (and the others connected with Ms. Susi’s tribute), to leave Howard totally lost and adrift at sea for very long.

 

Sheldon Cooper (the autistic) biggest misfit of them all, innocently (and quite unexpectedly) reminds us of the fact that Howard, unlike Sheldon (when he dealt with his Father’s death as a child), will not be alone; that Howard will go through the arduous grieving and complex loss process with the love and company of his faithful and levelheaded friends.

 

Bravo, Sheldon Cooper!

 

Bravo for that sweet, innocent, child-like, virtuous side in all of us that he so kindly expressed to his friend, Howard, in his time of need.

 

We so appreciate you and your nerdy, insufferable little self for speaking words of kindness and comfort to those who at times forget the love and consolation that is steadfastly there embodied in the form of a friend.

 

“You have friends”.

 

May each of you remember this simple, but often easily forgotten sentiment of well-deserved love and camaraderie.

 

And more importantly, remember: “You are never alone.”

 

Namaste.

 

I’ll catch ya next week for another look at life living in my shoes.