There’s something comic (and not haha comic) about Joan Rivers as a spokesperson for confronting the realities of growing older, as she does in this PSA by Volunteers of America. Maybe a chat with the plastic surgeons who turned her face into a grotesque mask would be adviseable too. But this chat with her daughter Melissa is brave and the message is important. A crucial topic during any such conversation — more likely a series of conversations — is medical care at the ends of our lives. As Professor Deborah Carr of Rutgers University says in this post, “End-of-life discussions shape our families, not just other way around, and have implications for how family members cope and carry on after our deaths.”
Joan Rivers’ face may be a mask, but I saw her “in concert” — if you can call a night at a NYC dinner club a concert — and she is rude, crude, and screamingly funny. She was a pioneer for women in stand-up, which is still a man’s world. This is a terrific public service announcement. Thanks for posting it.