Finding The Sunshine

OMG: Junior High Pal Jan Friedlander Svendsen 

In all my years of Emmy watching, sometimes in the audience, mostly at home, I've never had an Emmy-related sob fest. But last night the tears of joy flowed, unexpectedly. I was sitting solo on the sofa, well, not solo, Sir Blakey was next to me, while longtime hubby remained at the youngest's new apartment, waiting for the U-Verse people to arrive four hours late, and the category of outstanding director of a variety special came up. The winner: Glenn Weiss for the Academy Awards. I clapped on his behalf. I've never met him, but he's the boyfriend of my lovely friend Jan. We hung out a lot at Emerson and Uni High. We had sleepovers and danced and giggled and talked about boys. We sneaked into R-rated movies like "The Owl and the Pussycat." She visited me, along with Val and Kyle, when I lived in England. She's spent most of her adult years in New York, raising daughters as a single mom, and hanging out with Broadway stars, as director of marketing for the Broadway League, and now, chief creative director of Charity Network. She came to our NYC reading of "Brushes: A Comedy of Hairs" a few years ago. She's a mensch and I always kvell on her behalf, and vice versa. So last night, there she was in the audience, looking gorgeous in a sparkly gown, celebrating her boyfriend's win, unaware she was about to become the star of a historical TV moment. As he began his acceptance speech, he acknowledged the death of his mother two weeks before. "Part of my heart is broken. I don't think it will ever be repaired. But she's in me and always will be." His mother always believed in "finding the sunshine," he said, leading to the perfect segue of all time. Jan was the sunshine of his life. 

"Jan, I want to put this ring that my mom wore on your finger in front of all these people and in front of my mom and your parents watching from above. Will you marry me?" She said yes. Sweetest, most heartfelt Emmy moment ever.