Jeff Ross

And we were responsible.

All of us are responsible for our own happiness.

Besides the having to take care of yourself for her, you know, she wanted to make sure while she was in the hospital that I was, my sister and I, you know, I was playing football.

I was washing my uniform every night and making my own dinner and just being a good boy.

We couldn't visit her very often because the hospital was in New York and we lived in New Jersey.

So I would write her letters, and that was a big part of my mission, to cheer her up.

I'd write her funny letters.

And I found a bunch of them recently.

I couldn't find what I wrote to her, but I found the one she wrote back to me.

And she's like, all the nurses had a good laugh.

And she's like, you know, had some funny Nazi name that I must have used.

I think I wrote my mom a letter as a Nazi general at the hospital.

And I remember going to visit her one weekend and she was losing her hair from the chemo.

And she was very upset about emotional telling my sister and I that she'd be losing her hair.

And...

I remember hugging her and making Kojak references.

And, you know, we're the only kids at school whose mom looks like Kojak.

And we had just seen The King and I, my sister and I, and my dad would take us to Broadway shows to cheer us up after the hospital visits.

And The King and I, Yul Brynner, you know...

So I made a joke about that, you know, that she would look like Yul Brynner, who was awesome.