The brother of the late Catherine O’Hara has revealed emotional details about her final days and how he got to say a ‘sort of goodbye’.
O’Hara, star of Schitt’s Creek and both Home Alone movies, died on January 30 from a blood clot in her lungs.
Her representatives confirmed to Metro at the time she had endured a ‘brief illness’, having been diagnosed with cancer the year before.
Now, her brother, Michael P. O’Hara, has shared that she ‘wasn’t talking much in the end’, making goodbyes hard.
On his podcast, Dreams of Our Loved Ones, he said: ‘She didn’t really want to talk on the phone… And she didn’t live close by, she’s in Los Angeles.
Instead, he believes she said a ‘sort of goodbye’ in his dreams, appearing to him and hugging him in the days leading up to her death.
‘Recently, I had a death in the family. Very unexpected and very, very sad,’ he said. ‘I always cherish the times I can meet with a loved one in the dream state.
‘Actually, oddly enough, I had a dream a few days before she died, my sister. And I was hugging her, which was really beautiful. And I guess it was sort of a goodbye.’
Michael said he dreamt she was ‘very happy’ and renovating her home in ‘the other world’, which he has since ‘visited’ in his sleep.
He continued: ‘I was visiting her, and she was in a new house and it was being renovated, and she was really busy choosing furniture and couches.
‘And she said, “You can sleep here anytime, Michael. You can come over and stay any time.”‘
The dream apparently reminded him of times with his sister when she worked on sketch show Second City Television (SCTV) in the 70s and 80s.
Michael, who was an apprentice at a hotel at the time, recalled how he would stay over in her guest room some nights.
Describing the dreams as ‘pretty cool’ he added it was ‘beautiful’ to see, noting O’Hara was ‘just so happy and very busy in the other world that she’s now in.’
He concluded: ‘We all have our own experiences that are related to us and our own deceased loved ones and we’re all interconnected and the love, you know, continues no matter what. They’re always with us.’
O’Hara’s death was a shock to those around her and her Hollywood co-stars, with hundreds of tributes rolling in.
Schitt’s Creek creator Dan Levy recently confirmed there would be no bringing the series back without her, despite his plans for a sequel.
The sitcom ran from 2015 to 2020, sweeping up 19 Emmy nominations along the way, with its final season praised in all seven major comedy award categories.
Tearing up when visiting Goodwood, where the series was filmed, he shared: ‘It’s tough being back.’
Dan continued: ‘Just a lot of memories…a lot of memories with Catherine. It’s what you have to hold onto is the memories of it all.’
He had previously described his on-screen mum as ‘irreplaceable’ and ‘one of the great, great, great, great queens’.
O’Hara’s final performance was in The Studio, for which she received a posthumous Actor Award for comedy, accepted by co-star Seth Rogen.
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