My Journey with Farrah - Alana Stewart [10]
I ran to Farrah and we hugged for a long time. Then she held out her arm and showed me the two beautiful matching bracelets she was wearing, one in platinum and one in rose gold. “I bought them today,” she said. “I just thought…why not? I might as well treat myself.” Then she took one off and gave it to me.
“This is your birthday present. If I die, you can have the other one, too,” she joked, but I saw a hint of sadness behind her sweet smile.
“And if I die first, you can have mine back,” I teased.
Her gesture touched me deeply. This was so like Farrah, to be going through this horrendous, life-threatening ordeal and still thinking about a birthday present for me. No matter what she was going through, she always thought about others.
Soon she was surrounded by everyone. It was always like that: people just flocked to her side. It didn’t matter if it was a fan or a studio head, they were all equally in awe of Farrah. I watched her laughing, hugging friends and acquaintances, holding court. I was in awe of her, too, tonight.
Celebrations with Farrah were always a party.
This photo was taken in 1988 on Farrah’s birthday at Trader Vic’s. We had a terrific time that night and drank a ton of Scorpions. But my memories of her are less about parties and more about the loyalty that she always showed to her friends.
A few months after this photo was taken, she was in the middle of filming a TV miniseries with Ryan called Small Sacrifices when I had a problem. I needed a paying acting gig to get my Screen Actors Guild health insurance reactivated. Without even blinking, Farrah called the producer, our friend Suzanne de Passe, and they gave me a part. There was this small scene involving Neighbor Number One and Neighbor Number Two; they were supposed to bring some food over to Farrah’s character. Farrah made me Neighbor Number One. I just needed something with lines that would allow me to get my health insurance.
Small Sacrifices was filming in Edmonton, Canada. I arrived on the set and went into hair and makeup, where Farrah had them put me in this horrible polyester blouse, which stuck to me for every minute I was in the 100-degree heat. They sprayed my hair brown and pulled it back in a bun. They were trying to unglam me. Farrah loved it!
When I came out to film the scene, the director, a man named David Green, said to me, “Who are you, young lady?”
“Neighbor Number One,” I answered.
“No you’re not,” he said. “You’re Neighbor Number Two.”
It turned out that he had hired someone else, and she had gotten my lines. Frantic, I found Farrah and reported that they’d cast someone else in my part. She immediately called Suzanne and straightened things out. I ended up playing Neighbor Number Two, but with a line written especially for me: “I brought you some potato salad…”
I got to keep my health insurance because of that potato salad…and Farrah. We laughed about Neighbor Number One and the polyester blouse for years.
TREATMENT IN GERMANY
May 20, 2007
I called Farrah to tell her I’m going to leave for the Leonardis Clinic on Friday. I’ve had this trip planned for some time, so Sean can get his second round of treatments for ADD. I was hoping she would want to come with me. But there’s a new development: the doctors at UCLA want to scan the rest of her body to see if the cancer has spread anywhere else. My heart stopped when she told me, but she was calm. The possibility of the cancer spreading beyond the tumor had never even occurred to me. She’s having the scan on Thursday.
May 24, 2007
The scan showed up something in her