My Daughter Makes My Purse Shake

"Mrs. Spelling, your purse is making the locker it's in shake and vibrate."

I was being wheeled into yet another elbow surgery, so I was sure I was hallucinating.

"Look, Mrs. Spelling, your daughter is the next guest," a nurse in the pre-op area seemed to say a few seconds later, pointing at a monitor in the hallway.

Ah, that explained why my purse was shaking the locker. Whenever Tori was on TV, I got a flood of phone calls. I wanted more pre-op drugs. My daughter's book had just come out, and I had been barraged with phone calls, emails, letters and strangers in restaurants reporting what she was saying. Now I was imagining that even the hospital medical staff was talking about the book.

"Hi, Candy," my surgeon said. "Just watched Tori. She said you and she have a good and non-confrontational relationship."

"Where's the anesthesiologist?" I asked. "Something is wrong with the anesthetic. It's not working."

I thought I heard someone say something about why Tori thought she could get an inheritance when her mother was still alive. "Kids don't get inheritances until both parents pass, and the mother looks quite healthy," one of the operating room experts declared to another.

More drugs. More drugs.

I saw lights, heard muffled voices, a nurse came over, and someone said the surgery was over. I fell back asleep and was moved to my room.

"Mrs. Spelling, look. Isn't that your daughter on television?" a disembodied voice asked.

Sure enough. I opened my eyes, and there was Tori on another talk show.

"My mother is a great grandmother," I think she said. "Our relationship is fine."

I knew that. I had just seen my grandson, and we were already becoming great buddies. I was excited that Tori is pregnant again, and I'd be a grandmother of two soon.

"Mrs. Spelling, would you like some water?"

"Yes, please."

"Here. You were in surgery for a while, so I'm not sure if you know your daughter was on TV this morning. She has a new book, and she showed pictures of birthday parties you and your husband gave for her."

"Uh, huh. May I have more water, please?"

I learned another lesson today. Even surgery doesn't shield mothers of famous children from their escapades. I wonder how isolated wilderness camps really are. I could probably still answer questions on my website, as I've been doing since the book came out, if the wilderness wasn't too isolated. I'll have to ask my doctor when I can travel.

Comments

[alienlovesong]

Ugh . More rich people bitching about nothing.

[lsbskins1]

I was asking myself why I even clicked on this but then I realized...at least most of the others who did and felt the need to comment had much the same reaction that I did: Candy is a self-centered shmuck and Tori is carving out a respectable life for herself in spite of that fact.

[demlover1]

Mrs. Spelling,

I don't really understand why you would post something here unless you want to get a lot of negative feedback. Your daughter didn't paint the most flattering picture of you in her interviews and book excerpts. I don't understand why all of you don't try and keep these matters more private--to avoid public scrutiny.
And for the record, many parents, particularly extremely wealthy ones give their children large inheritances after one of the parents dies. They don't wait for both of the parents to die to share wealth with their children. Simply from an estate planning angle, to minimize estate taxes, you'd want to give each child at least 1 million to use up the 2 million cap on inheritance taxes. Also, many people would have bought life insurance policies that they could have gifted to their children to avoid estate taxes (since these aren't subject to estate taxes either). Finally, one would have thought just to avoid having your daughter write unflattering things about you and your family, doing embarassing reality shows to make money, that you might have thought of giving her a significant amount of money now, rather than making her embarass your family on national tv to make a living. Your family has so much money, why not share it with your children now and use the rest to help others who are less fortunate. I don't get it. I hope that you all come together and that you share some of your vast fortune with your children and their families now, so that you and your children can have the wonderful relationship you all deserve.

[cjennie1]

I see where Tori gets her sense of humor, and God knows she needs one. The original horror stories made both of you look like spoiled, insensitive women. My sister just wrote a book (self-published) about my father. It's a 168 page hate letter to him...and to me (without "naming names"). She doesn't know I'm even aware of it and I'm still struggling for the forgiveness I need to find towards her. It seems like you and Tori have found it. Godspeed.

[Newyorkgal]

Hold on. What am I missing here?

Over 175,000 people are reading this, and 20 of them are insuting her for writing it?

Why criticize her? She wrote a tongue-in-cheek story about being the mother of a celebrity who wrote a tell-all book.

I'd much rather read her than the book.

[PatA]

Sounded like a med induced fog to me. Pretty tacky.

[zbigniew]

Why don't you open up your shaking purse and give your daughter some money? None of this would have happened if you hadn't been so stingy.

[in4success]

sounds like life's tough for you. what a pity.

[cocopuffed]

sounds like it's all about her... tori must have had hger fingers crossed,

[Hawkeye17]

The fact that your posting this here makes me understand why Tori wrote that book the way she did. I'm sure there's good reason for some of her angst.

[dawlishgal]

My grown sons have not been on televison (that I know of), but they are fine responsible adults and I am proud of them. If people told me that they were going to appear on tv (or anything else about them short of "they are going to jail)," I would be very happy to hear it.

What a sad little commentary on a mother-daughter relationship. I am not sure I would want my children around such a person, even if she were the only grandmother in the picture.

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

Narcissistic personality disorder.

[OtayPanky]

Exactly so.

[OtayPanky]

Nice.

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

not so much

[dmmanon]

Hey Candy, Get the hint?!!! You need a different hobby!

[ChiGuy]

"Even surgery doesn't shield mothers of famous children from their escapades."

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Gee...I wonder where such children got their adult models.