Goodbye, Alice

It’s taken me a few days to get my thoughts collected and write this one. If you know me, you know I take celebrity deaths hard. My reaction is often wildly disproportionate, especially when they’ve lived to a ripe age and many folks thought they had already passed. We lost Ann B. Davis, a.k.a., The Brady Bunch’s Alice Nelson this past Sunday. She was 88.

Things we learned from Ann/Alice (and have forgotten or maybe didn’t know to begin with):

1.        Alice had an uncompromising work ethic.  No job was too big or too small. We never heard Alice utter “that’s not in my job description.”

2.       Alice taught us empathy. Remember one of the times when Jan was suffering from “Middle Child Malaise” and Alice sent her a locket from a secret admirer because, as we found out, she, too, was a middle child? She helped Jan feel special and get over this particular bump in the road.

      

3.       Alice was never without a smile on her face. Whether she was helping with a school assignment, cooking dinner, cleaning the one bathroom shared by six kids, or heading out to the Meatcutters’ Ball with Sam, she knew the one accessory that makes you and everyone around you happy.

4.       Although she wasn’t a Brady, there’s no doubt Alice was part of that family (and part of ours, too). She debunked the old line about “blood being thicker than water.” I don’t want to imagine the Bradys’ lives without Alice any more than I want to imagine my childhood without her.

5.       Ann was a Christian. Davis also became well-known off-screen for her dedicated Christian faith. In a 1992 interview with People, the actress spoke of her spiritual side, saying, "I'm convinced we all have a God-shaped space in us, and until we fill that space with God, we'll never know what it is to be whole."

6.       Alice showed the importance of flexibility. She had plenty 
of curve balls thrown her way (literally and figuratively), but 
took them all in stride, embracing a “Devil-may-care,” “bring 
it on” mentality. She knew if it didn’t kill her (or throw her 
back out), that it would make her stronger. And Alice was 
plenty strong.

      

7.       The most endearing quality of Alice, for me, was her self-deprecating humor. She realized life is short and that if you can’t laugh, especially at yourself, that it’s just not as fun. She was a great sport and taught me that you can laugh or cry, but laughing is a lot more fun.

Ann, I know you’re smiling down on us right now. Blessings, old friend.