*Marla Gibbs, best known for portraying Florence Johnston on “The Jeffersons,” is sharing the full weight of her life story in a new memoir published by Amistad Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.
“It’s Never Too Late” covers her formative years in Chicago and briefly Detroit, where she grew up amid divorce, an absent mother, and a grandmother who showed clear favoritism toward her older sister. “My growing-up life was missing a lot because my mother wasn’t there,” she tells PEOPLE, “so I missed that love. And my grandmother gravitated to my older sister. She was the firstborn, so I missed that love.”
The book also confronts painful personal history, including a suicide attempt in her teenage years and an 18-year marriage defined by physical and mental abuse. That upbringing left a lasting impression on how Gibbs chose to parent. “Everything about the way I was raised made me want to be a different kind of mother,” she says. “I would be more loving, and I would listen to my children more.”
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In 2006, Gibbs survived a brain aneurysm followed by a near-fatal stroke. She wrote that coming through it gave her a renewed sense of calling. “Most people do not survive brain aneurysms, so I knew God still had plans for me.” The aftermath, however, sent her into a deep depression. “I felt like maybe it was time for me to go. I didn’t want to get up. I didn’t want to do anything,” she confessed.
During her time in rehabilitation, Gibbs repeatedly tried to get to the bathroom on her own, falling each time. Her family asked staff to restrain her, but Gibbs paid close attention and freed herself every time they left the room. “I watched carefully as the nurses tied me up, so I could untie myself as soon as they left. And you guessed it … I’d be on the floor again,” she wrote.
Physical, occupational, and speech therapy helped her regain function over time, a process she described as requiring “every ounce of physical, mental and spiritual strength” she could find. The aneurysm had interrupted plans to tour behind a new jazz CD.
“I was getting ready to tour with my new jazz CD, but as they say, man makes plans and God laughs. This wasn’t funny though,” she wrote. What ultimately carried her through was a fundamental shift in outlook. “Acceptance of where I was in my recovery was essential to me healing, and I think acceptance is key to healing in life,” she wrote.
“It’s Never Too Late” is available now wherever books are sold.
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: Marla Gibbs Opens Up About Surviving Aneurysm and Stroke in New Memoir
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