At the moment, I'm watching reruns of "Golden Girls" and a rush of emotions has come over me. It appears that time is standing still, and Bea Authur is still with us. I wonder, when she was alive, if she was aware of how important her existence was to the world, and to all cultures and ages. In all honestly, I wasn't aware of her importance until now. Simply recalling how I would flock to the family TV set, as a young African-American girl, living in a black community that was boiling with racial prejudice, and age and gender discrimination, I'm certain that it was images of Bea Athur and the girls living out what I thought were their lives, that convinced me that the color of skin didn't make me any different than the next person, that my gender didn't make me weak, and that growing older didn't have to bring sadness. Through Bea Author's humor, strength, and the revealing personality of her character, a young Black Girl rushed to TV set to see that a golden life can also be her own.
