Coping With Loss
- Actress and TV host Valerie Bertinelli has been open about how the loss of her mother Nancy and her ex-husband Eddie Van Halen has affected her. She recently posted a photo of the two saying how much she missed them both.
- Valerie continues to share her mother’s legacy by sharing her recipes with the world. She’s previously said that her mom helped inspire her love of cooking.
- Valerie honors her late ex-husband’s memory by sharing the ever-important lessons he taught her: namely, that “love always wins no matter what.”
- Valerie advises people coping with loss to allow themselves to feel exactly how they’re feeling. She did so by writing her memoir.
Valerie, the 63-year-old actress turned Food Network star and author, is not shy about sharing the hardship she’s endured. She lost her mother Nancy in 2019 after she “died peacefully in her sleep” at age 82.
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Understandably so, Valerie still misses both of them to this day. She recently shared a throwback photo of her late mother and ex-husband in a touching show of reminiscence.
“Ed and my mom. May 2017,” she wrote in her caption. “I miss them both very much. ðŸ¤ðŸ¤ My goodness, iPhoto memories sure are giving me some serious 🥹 this week XO.”
Moving Forward After Loss
Looking at the picture, it’s easy to see why it’s likely a favorite of Valerie’s. Eddie is lovingly looking at Nancy with his arm wrapped around her as she sits smiling. In Nancy’s eyes, you can see her joy as she looks back at the camera (and likely Valerie taking the picture).
Coping With Loss like Valerie Bertinelli
Her latest Instagram is certainly not the first time Valerie Bertinelli has opened up about missing both Nancy Bertinelli and Eddie Van Halen. But, thankfully, she’s found ways to honor their memories.
One place she carries on her mother’s legacy is in the kitchen. She’s previously credited Nancy as well as her grandmother for inspiring her love of cooking, and she’s made a point to share their recipes with the world via her various cooking shows.
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“I [remember] sitting on the stool watching my Nonnie roll out gnocchi, cappelletti and fry bread, and asking me what I wanted in the fry bread, whether I wanted it sweet or savory, jelly or cheese,” Valerie told Food Network in 2015.
“I still have her rolling pin and it’s probably one of my most-prized possessions. And watching my mom cook three meals without a microwave. She made our breakfast and was making our lunches while we were sitting eating breakfast for school. Then we’d come home to a great home-cooked meal. So, it’s always watching masters in the kitchen, which were the women in my life.”
The ways in which she honors Eddie’s legacy is likely a bit more complex. Their relationship was full of ups and downs, but they did reach "a beautiful place together" before Eddie’s passing. In moving forward, Valerie has been open about the invaluable lesson she learned from Eddie.
"Love," she said. "If there's nothing else in this world, go back to that key point that you know you have inside you, that you know that you feel for the people that are closest to you. That love. Love always wins no matter what, even when they're gone.
"There's still that love there to be grateful for that you had."
Her advice to others coping with loss is to allow themselves to feel all the feelings that come with grief. She did so by writing her memoir “Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today.”
“I was able to really speak to it and not shove all of the grief down. I am so used to shoving all of my feelings down and not feeling them and using food so I wouldn’t have to deal with my feelings,” she said.
“And I think it was extremely cathartic. I would advise it to anybody, if you are going through a really strong feeling, write it down. It really, really does help.”
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