Opening up. Saturday Night Live star Cecily Strong spoke from the heart about the pain of grieving while social distancing and the challenges of navigating a new relationship amid a pandemic.
The 35-year-old comedian reflected on the loss of her cousin Owen, who was battling an aggressive form of brain cancer, in a personal essay for Vulture. Strong traced her family’s journey back to March 2018, when her cousin was diagnosed, but admitted that she didn’t know “how to tell this story” in a way that does Owen justice. She remembered her “fearless” cousin’s demeanor the first time she saw him after receiving the news. “Owen has this quality of being the one who supports everyone around him, even while being the one who is undergoing vigorous treatments for glioblastoma,” she wrote. “He’s really special.” Despite his outward strength, Owen lost his long battle and succumbed to the cancer in January. In the midst of her devastating loss, Strong also found herself falling in love with someone she met at a party the month before. Though at first their timing wasn’t “great,” they end up making a strong connection. They made their relationship official just two months after Owen’s death.
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