Getty Images/Charley Gallay(LOS ANGELES) — Fans, friends, and family are still reeling from the double loss this week of Star Wars icon Carrie Fisher on Tuesday, and her mother, Hollywood legend Debbie Reynolds, just one day later.
Reynolds, 84, died following a stroke that her son Todd Fisher said she suffered while making funeral arrangements for her daughter, who died several days after going cardiac arrest on an airplane.
Fisher told ABC News that Reynolds was rushed to the hospital Wednesday but doctors told the family there was nothing they could do to save the actress. “She was very peaceful and quiet,” Fisher said. “It happened very gently.”
“She loved taking care of my sister more than anything,” Fisher said tearfully. “So, she gets to do that and that’s what she wanted to do.”
Fisher said Reynolds “missed her daughter” and that she wanted to “see her again.” He added, “I don’t think she really meant it quite like that, but … she went to go see her again.”
According to Fisher, there will be a double tribute to both actresses in which the public will be able to participate.
The mother-daughter relationship between Reynolds and Fisher was strained for years, as Fisher battled mental health and addiction issues. Some of the turmoil between them was documented in Fisher’s semi-autobiographical novel Postcards from the Edge. It later became a movie with Fisher’s friend Meryl Streep playing the daughter, and Shirley MacLaine playing her Reynolds-esque showbiz mom.
In recent years, however, the pair were described as “inseparable,” even moving right next door to one another. They both took part in an upcoming HBO documentary about their lives called Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds.
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