It just reminds me I need to keep talking about how much I loved, miss, cry over, remember, am thankful for my grandmother Amanda Morales, who died Jan, 3rd, 2005.

If Jamie can cry over his grandmother, so can I:

“This is probably going to be the toughest part of this speech. My daughter shares my grandmother’s name, ‘Marie.’ My grandmother’s name is Estelle Marie Talley. She’s not here tonight. And this is going to be the toughest part. But she was my first acting teacher. She told me to stand up straight. Put your shoulders back. Act like you got some sense.

We would go places. And I would wild out. And she would say, ‘Act like you’ve been somewhere.’ And then when I would act the fool, she would beat me. She would whup me. And she could get an Oscar for the way she whupped me because she was great at it. And after she whipped me, she would talk to me and tell me why she whipped me. She said I want you to be a southern gentleman. She still talks to me now. Only now, she talks to me, in my dreams. And I can’t wait to go to sleep tonight because we got a lot to talk about. I love you.”