Not Young, Still Restless (21 page)

So off I went to the groundbreaking ceremony for the new facility in May 2008, surrounded by the rolling plains and endless skies of Midland. I was back in November to tour the thirteen-thousand-square-foot building as it neared completion, and in May 2009 I proudly attended the Springboard Center’s grand opening.

This eighteen-bed facility is unique among rehab and treatment programs. The focus is on restoring health and dignity to clients and their families through diet and nutrition; emotional, mental, and spiritual development; exercise; education; and the development of self-sufficiency skills. A unique treatment plan is created for each individual client, since everyone arrives with their own history and their own set of problems and circumstances. The brilliantly trained staff of doctors, nurses, counselors, and therapists is on duty every hour of every day of the year. And incredibly, there’s nothing exclusive, elitist, or cost-prohibitive about the Springboard Center. It’s not reserved for the wealthy and privileged. The cost is based on the client’s ability to pay, so no one is turned away based on a lack of funds or insurance. The center really is truly available to anyone who needs help—more than six thousand souls and their families so far, in fact.

Plans are currently under way for a new wing that will expand the facility to twenty-four beds, and for stables and a riding ring to capitalize on the almost magical connection between recovering clients and the magnificent strength and beauty of horses. I’ve been back to Midland several times for fund-raising events, and I’ll be back whenever Tim and the center need me. Every time I visit I’m even more touched, more inspired, more energized, and more committed to this amazing nonprofit cause, which, as far as I’m concerned, should be used as a template for other substance abuse treatment and recovery centers throughout the country.

If I sound passionate about the Springboard Center, it’s only because I am. I saw it rise out of the Texas soil into a complex any community would be proud to call its own, and I’ve also personally talked to dozens of clean, sober, grateful clients who’d failed at other facilities and almost given up any hope of recovery until they found their way to Midland.

Please visit the Springboard Center’s website, www.springboardcenter.com, to read more about the extraordinary work my friend Tim Baker and his colleagues are doing there. Whether or not you can help, whether or not you or a loved one needs help, I’m excited for you to know where a big part of my heart is invested these days.

No matter who you are, no matter where you are, no matter what your circumstances, you can change the life of a soul who needs you right this minute. It’s the quickest cure for loneliness, boredom, and depression you’ll ever find. Isn’t it thrilling to know that you can wake up tomorrow morning and, before the day is over, make a difference? That you can matter to someone, even if you’re just doing it for your own sense of self-worth?

Not because you have to, but because you want to.

Because it’s right.

Because you’ll get back everything you give and more.

Because we can all use some hope right now in these tough times.

Because we have no choice.

Afterword

I
admit it, I didn’t exactly leap at the idea of writing my memoirs, and not because I was reluctant to tell you my secrets. In fact, I think I’d be one of the hardest people on earth to blackmail—threaten to expose some “dirt” about me and I’ll be on the phone with the press in a heartbeat to expose it myself. I just wasn’t sure I was ready to dredge up some of my more painful memories and feel them all over again.

But the truth is, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, even the hard parts. It’s been cathartic. It’s been liberating. It may have even saved me thousands of dollars in therapy bills. And it gave me a chance to relive the impossibly happy times and feel those all over again too, and be reminded that they far overshadow the occasional darkness.

I thank you for walking through these pages with me and for caring enough to take that walk. It’s because of each of you that I have so much joy to share and look back on and look forward to, and if you only take away one truth from this book, I hope it’s this: I’m living proof that you can overcome mistakes, substance abuse, and plenty of bad choices, and as long as you fight hard to keep your heart in the right place and full of gratitude, you can wake up one morning and realize that you really are a blessed, purposeful, exhilarated eighty-three-year-old.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a seven
A.M.
hair and makeup call.

Acknowledgments

I
’m overwhelmed trying to think of everyone who’s more than earned my heartfelt thanks for their contributions to my life. The complete list would demand a book of its own. I pray that those of you I’m inadvertently forgetting know how much you mean to me, and that I’ll never stop finding other ways to express my gratitude.

But for now . . .

To Tom Langan, my longtime producer and cherished friend to this very day.

To John Conboy, the creator and master of the “new look” of television in the 1970s, who taught me the elegance of Katherine Chancellor.

To Josh O’Connell, associate producer of
The Young and the Restless
, who quietly, and often without nearly enough thanks, makes everything happen.

To each and every member of the
Y&R
crew, the true unsung heroes of our show. It’s an honor to know you and work shoulder to shoulder with you.

To Lindsay Harrison, for convincing me to tell my story, for being the animal lover she is, and for epitomizing the word “friend.”

To Michael Gregory, the Greek in my life.

To Dr. James Todd, the young dentist who wanted to meet Katherine Chancellor, did, and became, along with his wife, Susan, my “active friend” for thirty-eight long years.

To my amazing, loyal, generous Canadians, for your love and friendship over all these decades, every bit of which is reciprocated, and for the spectacular celebrations honoring my fifty years in show business. I haven’t forgotten, and I never will.

To Marilyn and Conrad Welle—“Viva Las Vegas!”

To Virginia Swanson, the intrepid PI of scams.

To our literary agent, Jennifer DeChiara, and to Lisa Sharkey and Amy Bendell, without whom this book wouldn’t have happened.

And to every single one of you who’s ever watched and supported Katherine Chancellor and
The Young and the Restless
. We, every one of us, owe it all to you.

Photographic Section

My parents and grandparents at the Taft oil fields (mother, in black, holding me), looking like a group audition for
The Grapes of Wrath
.

Photo courtesy of the author

Even at eight years old I knew—it’s all about the hair.

Photo courtesy of the author

A rare shot of just me and Daddy.

Photo courtesy of the author

Eighteen and surviving my first broken heart.

Photo courtesy of the author

Good-bye, Taft . . . look out, Pasadena.

Photo courtesy of the author

Daddy, Evelyn, Jack, and me—one of our last moments together.

Photo courtesy of the author

Off to Alaska with Ann Blythe, while Universal flew in our replacements behind our backs.

Photo courtesy of the author

The good news: starring in
Best Foot Forward
on stage. The bad news: having to sit like this to promote it.

Photo courtesy of the author

Adding “sultry” to my repertoire for $250 a week.

Photo courtesy of the author

Harry and me, straining for happiness in Venice while I shot
The Vikings.

Photo courtesy of the author

Harry, baby Corbin and me—Harry smiling longingly over at my checkbook.

Photo courtesy of the author

One thing I’ll say about Harry and me: we did make three spectacular children (from left to right, that’s Corbin, Collin, and Caren).

Photo courtesy of the author