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Carrie & Debbie's In Memoriam Was Heartbreaking

by Kathleen Walsh

Just when we thought we had finally gotten through 2016 with no more tragedy, two members of Hollywood royalty passed away. Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds got their own Golden Globes In Memoriam and it was as heartbreaking as you would expect it to be. After suffering cardiac arrest on a flight from London to Los Angeles on Dec. 23 at the age of just 60 years old, Fisher, who was best known for playing Princess Leia in the Star Wars films, was rushed from the flight and sadly died a few days later. In an even crueler twist, her mother, Debbie Reynolds, died just a day later at the age of 84. While the world will miss these two actresses deeply, for their talent and their brilliance, it's somewhat comforting to think that wherever they are now, they're together.

At least, that's what Reynold's son Todd Fisher said in The Hollywood Reporter. "She's with Carrie," he's reported as saying. How fitting, therefore, that they were given their own personal In Memoriam at the 2017 Golden Globes together. If there was a dry eye in the room, I'd be surprised, as even I was sitting here on my couch sobbing softly into my throw pillows as the montage of the two of them came on.

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The clips showed the mother and daughter performing a song together, before moving on to shots of them in their most famous movie roles. This also transitioned between family snapshots of them when they were young to special moments later in their lives. They both went through some trials throughout the years (much of it very publicly), but they got through it together, and it is heartbreaking to lose both of them so soon and suddenly.

Fisher went through a now well-publicized battle with drugs, specifically cocaine, only to come out the other side with her book-turned-one-woman-show, Wishful Drinking. Reynolds, who got her first break playing opposite Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain, was married to pop singer Eddie Fisher before he famously left her for Elizabeth Taylor. But at the end of their lives, they had overcome all of that.

Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher were far from the only people in Hollywood to have died this year. 2016 started with the loss of the irreplaceable David Bowie, and then moved right along through Prince, Muhammed Ali, Alan Rickman, Gene Wilder, and plenty of others. For pretty much everybody, 2017 could not have come soon enough. At the very least, these two incredible women were given the recognition they so deserved.