She Lost Her Mother at Age 11 and Taught Oprah a Lesson She Never Forgot
7/7/202630 min
One of her guests Oprah has never forgotten was an 11-year-old girl named Kate who had recently lost her mother to cancer. In a conversation that touched millions Kate shared one of the many memories she treasured most was a special night when she and her mom sat together eating a bowl of Cheerios. It was a poignant reminder that the moments that matter most are not always the grand vacations, expensive gifts or elaborate celebrations, instead it can be simply time spent together. Oprah shares how over the years she often thinks about her conversation with Kate and the impact it had on her own life and her viewers’ lives. Now, Kate returns to The Oprah Podcast as a mother of two herself reflecting on how losing her mom at such a young age shaped the woman she became, the parent she strives to be and the ways she continues to carry her mother’s love forward.
00:00:00 - Welcome to a The Oprah Winfrey Show throwback
00:02:00 - Kate and Zach just lost their mom
00:08:30 - Kate and Zach as teenagers
00:10:15 - Kate shares signs from her mother
00:12:39 - Kate at 29
00:14:20 - Kate on getting help and getting sober
00:17:00 - Kate with Oprah now
00:18:24 - Zach and Kate’s relationship now
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsOprah Winfrey· Host0:00
[applause] This is Tom and his children, Zach and Kate. Tom lost his beloved wife, Kathleen, three months ago. Do you have letters that your mom wrote?
Speaker 20:10
"I'm confident in the kind and of wonderful woman you will become. With this knowledge, I have grown to actually be able to face death with a sense of peace. You have helped me get there because I know you'll be all right."
Oprah Winfrey· Host0:23
At the end of the show, I asked 11-year-old Kate what was her favorite memory.
Speaker 20:29
About a week before she died, before she went into the hospital, I was in their room sleeping and she... I said, "Mom, will you wake me up if you go downstairs to eat a bowl of cereal?" She said, "Yes." So at 2 o'clock in the morning, we both went down and we- Oh.
Oprah Winfrey· Host0:44
[laughs] Cheerios?
Speaker 20:45
Yeah.
Oprah Winfrey· Host0:47
And in the end, what matters the most to the children, I believe, as Kate so eloquently shared with us, are the moments and the time. And it's not the jackets and the great big games and the vacations, but it's the time she spent with her mom eating a bowl of Cheerios. Well, Kate is now married and a mother of two daughters. Hi, Kate.
Kate Collinger· Guest1:07
Hi, Oprah.
Oprah Winfrey· Host1:08
Hey there. Thank you for spending time with us here on The Oprah Podcast. Over 25 years of The Oprah Winfrey Show, we did it all. It all. Makeovers.
Speaker 21:21
All right, all right.
Oprah Winfrey· Host1:22
Incredible reunions. [cheering] Giveaways.
Speaker 21:26
These jacks are cold.
Oprah Winfrey· Host1:28
Celebrity conversations.