Todd Fisher is currently dealing with the heartbreak of losing his sister, Carrie Fisher, and mom, Debbie Reynolds, within one day of each other [1] earlier this week. While celebrities [2], former costars [3], and fans have been offering their support [4] in a number of ways, Todd opened up about how he's coping in an interview with 20/20 [5] on Friday. Todd, who also recently shared a beautiful drawing of Carrie and Debbie reuniting in Heaven [6], talked with Elizabeth Vargas about the legacy the two women leave behind. See his most beautiful and heartbreaking quotes below.
- "From the family's perspective, this is Debbie's destiny. She didn't want to leave Carrie and did not want to her to be alone. My mother had said, 'I don't want to attend my daughter's funeral.' [While planning Carrie's funeral], she said she wanted to be with Carrie."
- "[Debbie] didn't die of a broken heart. She just left to be with Carrie . . . Carrie was a force of nature in her own right, you know. It took another force of nature to bridle and work with that and she was great with her."
- "It wasn't that [Debbie] was sitting around inconsolable — not at all. She simply said that she didn't get to see Carrie come back from London. She expressed how much she loved my sister. She then said she really wanted to be with Carrie. In those precise words, and within 15 minutes from that conversation, she faded out. Within 30 minutes, she technically was gone. She started to have a stroke, and she just effectively went to sleep and didn't wake up. She closed her eyes, peacefully like you're going to sleep, and she literally went to sleep and left. My mother, if anybody, had somehow a way to do that, and I watched it happen in front of my face. I was on her bed with her, and I watched her leave and go to Carrie. God said, 'Get up here, and give us a hand.'"
- Todd said that Carrie "was at the top of her game" earlier this month while promoting her new projects, including her new memoir, The Princess Diarist, in England. "She was excited about Christmas. Her favorite thing to do was give out gifts. She always had the most amazing things for everybody."
- "We thought we might be able to save [Carrie] — that was in play for a little while. [It was] not a sure thing, by any means, but [Debbie] felt she had already left the building, so to speak."
- Todd revealed that the mother and daughter will be laid to rest next to each other. "It's horrible, it's beautiful, it's magical. They're together."
