WHY? – Because We LIKE You!

Is it just ME, or do your memories take you make to The Mickey Mouse Club and afternoon movies such as Beach Blanket Bingo?

Whether your answer is yes, or no, it really doesn’t matter.  I just want to take a moment and remember Annette Funicello, who died on April 8, 2013 at the age of 70 after a 20+ year battle with multiple sclerosis.

Here’s why…While Annette was undeniably the “Queen of the Mickey Mouse Club” (and we use the phrase “Mickey Mouse” with the highest reference to innovation, creativity…genius), she was also an accomplished pop-singer and big-screen movie actress (when they still used the female version of actor).

 

Touted to be bigger than Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake AND Ryan Gossling – COMBINED!,  (and this was before Social Media – heck – it was before the internet!), Annette gave us so much more than entertainment.

Though well-respected on TV, stage, and movies, I never respected  her more than when she spoke from the wheelchair she became confined to as her MS progressed, leaving her unable to walk since 2004.

Ever the optimist, Ms. Funicello energetically spoke to reporters telling of her hope to get better because, ‘I’m not always blind; sometimes my sight comes back for a while’.  Even just writing those words brings tears to my eyes.  Really, Ms. Funicello, where did your strength come from? Where can we get some of it?

I don’t know if anyone knows the answer to the source of Annette’s strength and courage; she was unable to speak since 2009.  I dare to imagine – and I will exercise a poetic license of sorts – that Ms. Funicello was a grateful  woman and recognized that she did have a blessed life and lived what was the fantasy of most (at least American) young girls and women of  her time.

I imagine Ms. Funicello must have been a woman of faith – at least in herself – and that she relied on that to move her forward even more than she came to rely on her wheelchair.

I imagine that Ms. Funicello’s spirit spoke louder than any verbal expression she was denied in the last years of her life.

I imagine that Ms. Funicello accepted – not surrendered – to the fate that was hers and that she used her celebrity to encourage others to stay strong and not grow bitter over the hand she was dealt.

And I believe that Ms. Funicello  inspired, influenced, and ignited a spark in many women who raised the next generation of daughters to ‘wish upon their own star’, to constantly set new goals, and to reach heights that create legacies that, like the “Queen of the Mickey Mouse Club”, will live forever.

So, IS it just me, or is THAT “the club” YOU want to belong to? 

Why? -  Because we LOVE what you stood for.

Annette Funicello

1942 - 2013