10/01/2024
It's been days already, but I still am so very emotional at this, our very shared loss. I've loved her, always, but just am not prepared for this, still. It's not that she was a legend or a woman excelling in a business that retires you at 40. No, it was something else far more personal. Maggie Smith was the pinnacle of the individual. She, I'm realizing now, was a beacon in one's long, struggling journey to find out just who you are, indeed if you can know it by the time your time is up. I think she did. I will treasure her every performance and those I've yet to know and feel. I will tremble at her magnificent control over words and emotions. I will stand in awe with the heart-rendering reminder that she was once a little girl, a child like all of us were, who somehow, through the vagaries of existence and a pluck for the theatrical, became that Miss Jean Brodie long after that role was fulfilled and its awards presented, a teacher of such eloquence of inspiration and determination of love. God bless you, Dame Smith. You meant far more to me than I ever realized.
In a statement issued via their publicist, her family said: “It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith."• Subscribe to ITV ...