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Amy Jo and Rick Turner Rick This is Rick Turner from HealthTalk Interactive, and we're talking today with Amy Jo Johnson. Amy Jo plays the character of "Julie Emrick", Felicity's best friend on the popular television drama "Felicity", and she's also loved by children all over the world for her starring role as the "Pink Power Ranger" in "The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers". Now, although Amy Jo's character on "Felicity" has had to deal with many different obstacles, they don't come close to comparing to the challenges she's had to face in her real life. In 1997, Amy Jo's mother Christine was diagnosed with cancer, a disease that eventually took her life. Amy Jo, thank you for being with us and being willing to share your story in order to help others. It's nice of you to do so. Amy Jo You're welcome. Rick Now, can you tell us about your mother and the circumstances of her diagnosis? How old was she at the time? Amy Jo She was fifty-three. Rick Fifty-three. And how did that come about? How did she learn that she had cancer? Amy Jo Actually, she was going in for a hysterectomy, and it was on Halloween, and she went in, and they opened her up, and they just found cancer everywhere, and so that's how we found out. Rick Where had the cancer started? Amy Jo It started in her appendix, and it had spread by the time they opened her up, like all through her body. Rick Wow. So, she was going in for a hysterectomy anyway. Was that because of some other diagnosis? Amy Jo No, I mean, she had had some belly aches, and it was that time, you know. She was fifty-three, and she just decided that she wanted a hysterectomy. Rick Right, just to take care of those general problems. Amy Jo Yeah. Rick Now, I also understand that while this was going on, you were offered the part on the show "Felicity". So, what was it like to have something so great happen in your personal life and something so devastating, all at the same time? Amy Jo It made the great thing not mean anything. Rick Really? Amy Jo Yeah. I mean, it was comforting and nice for my mom, that she knew I was taken care of and that I had a good job, and the people there were amazing and nice. But other than that, I think, for me, the important things in life sort of showed themselves and it has more to do with family and friends and the simple things. Rick Right. It put a TV role in perspective for you. Amy Jo Yes. Rick How old were you at the time, Amy Jo? Amy Jo How old was I? Was that like three years ago? Rick Three years ago. Amy Jo I was twenty-six. Rick Twenty-six. Amy Jo Yeah. Rick So, you got this news, and how did you react? How did your family react? What was the initial reaction to that? Amy Jo Oh. I mean, it was absolutely devastating. I was in LA, and I flew back home, and we all went to the hospital. My mom had the operation for a hysterectomy, so when she came out of the operation, she thought that she had had a hysterectomy. She had no idea why all of us were standing around her looking so sad. And we had to tell her. And it was devastating. Rick So you, the family, had to break the news to her. Amy Jo Yeah. Rick Boy, that can't be easy. Amy Jo No. Rick So, you say your family was there. How many members in your family? Amy Jo I have an older brother and an older sister. And lots of aunts and uncles and relatives. Rick Right. And how many people were there when you had to break the news to her? Amy Jo Actually, we all weren't there. It was a friend, a friend of ours. Rick I see. So, you say you had to leave LA. Where was this happening? Where was your mom's operation? Amy Jo Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. Rick So back on the East Coast. Amy Jo Yes. Rick And so you got this horrible news, and then you had to sort of break it to your mom, and then how did you all cope? Everybody is sad, obviously, but where do you go from there? How do you cope? Amy Jo We just had a lot of hope. My mom was a really spiritual person, and she was sort of the real strong one. Rick Really? Amy Jo In it all, and we had so much determination and hope that this became like an instant mission that we all had to make sure that she survived, and do whatever we can, you know? So it was like we went from being devastated and depressed to just having this mission, all of us, our whole family. Rick Right. I've seen situations like that where the person who is actually suffering the problem is the one that provides strength to everybody else. Amy Jo Yeah. My mom was amazing. I don't think she really showed me or my sister or my brother how scared she was. Maybe only at moments, but I know that my father, who was there through the whole thing with her, I know that she really let him know how she was feeling. So he was like the angel, and she just stayed strong and completely kept her sense of humor all the way until like the last day. Rick Amazing. Now, did you know right away how bad it was? Was there any waffling on, "Well, we might be able to cure her", or did they just say right up front, "This is bad". Amy Jo They said that there was a certain operation in Washington that might be able to cure her, and so, of course, we went and we tried to do that in January. And I think my dad really knew what was going to happen because he just knew, and we all were sort of in denial and just had this amazing hope and we were just going to try everything. Rick Sure, sure. Amy Jo But I could tell that my dad really knew from the moment he found out what was going to happen. Rick Yeah. So, you tried this procedure, which was sort of a long shot. What did that involve? Amy Jo Well, because my mom's cancer, it wasn't inside of the organs, it was on the outside of the organs. So it sort of ended up like suffocating everything down there, and this operation, they go in and they scrape off the cancer. So, when they went in, they opened her up, and he said there was just way too much. But the neat thing was that my mom had been going to these cancer groups, you know, the support groups. And I think there was like 15 other people on the Cape that had the same type of cancer as my mother. And it's a really rare form of cancer, too. It's kind of scary. But there was this one woman - my mom had found out this procedure - and she told this woman about it, and the woman ended up going and getting the operation, and she's fine now. So, that's kind of cool that my mom sort of helped somebody else in a way, you know. Rick Absolutely. Now, does this cancer have a name other than just... Amy Jo Yeah, but I could not tell you what it is. It's some long, crazy name. Rick But it was something that started in her appendix. Amy Jo Yes. Rick Interesting. Now, you mentioned support groups. What sort of help did you find out there? Amy Jo My mom went to a cancer support group with a friend of hers. They would go, and I think the most amazing thing during the whole time my mom was sick was the hospice. When my mom, right at the end, the last two months, she really wanted to be at home, and the hospice came in. And that was actually the first time that we all admitted that she was going to die, when the hospice came in. And they sort of made it just a fact, which was so good and such a blessing because she had almost two months to say goodbye to everybody. And they were just amazing people. They were just incredible. Rick The people who do that work are incredible. Amy Jo Yeah. Unbelievable. Rick Yeah. Now, talk a little bit more about you, Amy Jo. Now, I understand, in your character "Julie" on "Felicity", are you pretty artistic? Amy Jo Me, or my character? Rick Well, is it you who are into music and painting? Is that you? Amy Jo Yeah, that's me. But, oh, my character on "Felicity" plays the guitar also. But she plays guitar because I play guitar. Rick There you go. Bring that to the role. So, how has this experience, has it impacted your creative impulse at all? Amy Jo I think, more than anything, it has impacted my awareness of my instinct, and sort of it's given me sort of a fearlessness. My mom was my best friend, and the things that she told me before she died and the conversations we had were just completely amazing and inspiring, and she's definitely my guardian angel, and she's with me every moment now. And for some reason, ever since she got sick and she passed away, I've had this sort of fearlessness to take risks and to go on adventures and, you know, more than I think artistic creativity. It's more like adventuresome creativity. Do you know what I mean? I went over my hiatus for "Felicity", I went to Croatia for this global children's organization, this camp for kids who were in the war, and it was just amazing. I know I never could have gone if my mother wasn't my guardian angel, you know. Rick So, you feel bolder, in a sense. Amy Jo Oh, yeah. Completely. I mean, just watching her. I mean, she was the bravest woman I've ever seen going through what she went through. Rick Right. Yeah. How about your painting? What do you paint? Amy Jo Well, I painted my wall the other day. I took every tube of paint I have and just put it on my hands and splattered it all over the wall. But, I don't know. I paint. I've never taken an art class in my life, so I just sort of paint from my heart, and I like to paint pixies and fairies and, I don't know, just... Rick Is it a good outlet... Amy Jo ...abstract things. Oh, yeah. Oh, I love it. Rick Now, what sort of advice, if someone were to come along and say their mom or another loved one was diagnosed in a similar situation, what could you tell them that might help them through the process? Amy Jo I think, every situation is so different because everybody's relationships with their mother are so different. But, people - when I remember when my mom was sick - they would try and tell me that they understood, and it was so hard to have camaraderie with somebody who else's mother was sick. You know what I mean, it was sort of something you had to go through on your own. Rick Sure. Amy Jo Somebody gave me advice for my mom, which she was like "Really try to keep your mother comfortable and happy, and like doing the little things in life that we love so much". Like putting on our makeup in the morning and listening to good music and have nice candles burning and just like keeping those little rituals that we have every day. Don't lose those. And I really made sure - me and my sister - that my mom didn't lose those things. And I think that really helps because then you feel normal. A couple times my mom said she felt so unnormal anymore, like something's completely wrong with her, you know. So doing the normal routines and the normal things, I think, helps that person like stay grounded. Rick Is that something you had to learn in the process, or were you able to do that from the start when you found out? Amy Jo Somebody gave me that advice around Christmastime, and my mom at that point was still walking around. I mean, we went to New York. My mom was still able to do a lot of normal things - drive a car and stuff. But later on, as the months went by and she got more sick, that's when those things became really important, especially like the last couple months she was alive. Rick Right. So, really, you can't know what it's like until you go through it yourself. Amy Jo Yeah. And I think every situation is different. Rick Yeah, exactly. So, that's a tough row to hoe, and any final remarks you would like to leave with our listeners, any wisdom you might be able to impart? You mentioned try to stay grounded and keep a sense of normality about the person's life, but any other final thoughts you'd like to leave people? I'm curious about the sense of what seems to me like a sort of mutually exclusive concepts, having hope and yet acknowledging the reality of what's going on. Amy Jo Yeah, and I think it was really great that we had hope up until I think it was like two months. We still had this hope underneath, but we had faced the fact that she was going to die, and that's when she was able to say goodbye. But I think if she had done that eight months earlier, she might have died earlier. Or, I don't know, it might have been harder. Rick Sure. Amy Jo I think keeping hope as long as you can, until it is a real, until it's absolutely no turning back, but it's so important to have that. To have that faith and that hope. Rick So there's a balance you have to strike. Amy Jo Yeah, and know when it is that the hope is gone of her, you know, getting better. Rick Yes. It sounds like you were left with some nice memories of those last few months with your mom. Amy Jo They were. You know what? It was so hard and so awful watching her go through this, but at the same time, there were some amazing things that happened, miracles. Like, just, my mother planned her funeral, you know? She picked out the hymns. It was, I mean, amazing, and she said goodbye to everybody that she loved, so... Rick And not many people will get the opportunity to do that, so in a sense... Amy Jo Yeah. I mean, yeah. It was... Rick That is a blessing. Amy Jo I know that she felt that she had said goodbye to everybody that she needed to. Rick Yeah. Well, it sounds like an amazing experience, and thank you very much. We've been visiting with Amy Jo Johnson, the star of WBTV's "Felicity". Thanks so much, Amy Jo, for sharing with us your personal experience and your mom's story in order to help others. We appreciate it. Amy Jo Thank you. Rick This is Rick Turner for HealthTalk Interactive wishing you and your family the best of health. |
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Interviews Amy Jo Johnson: New Kid on the Squad |
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