Aphasia retires Bruce

 

Moonlighting.

Yes, that's the show I remember with so much fondness. I was in college and loved the chemistry between Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd—. David and Maddie. Every week, I would park in front of the television and sponge everything on the show. Then hold my breath in anticipation of a new episode the following week. 

What could a college student in faraway West Africa enjoy in a comedy-drama series about a couple of Americans in a Private detective business in Los Angeles? A place she may never visit in her lifetime. There was no one on the show that looked like me, but it didn't matter. And I never thought of it. It never bothered me. I was intrigued that Maddie, a woman was David's boss. Well, they were partners but she owned the agency before the partnership. I loved it. 

Here was a woman who was not intimidated by a man and did not have to be dictated to by one like millions of women around me in the mid-1980s. I loved it and was there for all of it. I grinned from ear to ear like a Cheshire cat as they traded wits. The back and forth, the banter, and wisecracks, fascinated me.

Oh!, the sexual tension in the air was palpable. That I would sometimes scream, "Kiss already" I enjoyed it all. Especially if you were a college kid who spent much of high school with your nose in silly romantic novels of the era—Mills, and Boon. I was still figuring out things in the dating world. and kind of wanted what they had, an independent woman who could love on her own terms.

Although I could not really relate to much of what was on the show, it was good escapism for me. I could wander to a place where a woman was allowed to be seen and heard loud and clear. A place unlike any around me. So I dreamed and lived vicariously through them. David (Bruce Willis) was sexy, carefree, self-assured and I wanted a boyfriend like him. And wished he would just fall in love with Maddie already and they would kiss, get married and live forever like the plot of all my Mills and Boon novels.

I honestly do not remember how the show ended, or if Maddie and David's finally got together, it was a long long time ago. Bruce Willis has gone on to act in many other movies, a couple of which I have seen, there was the one with Halle Berry in it "Perfect Stranger" I'm sure many others, but the genre of action movies is not my favorite. So, I have not seen many of his movies since "Moonlighting" but the memories of his time on that show are what I have and remember the most.

So hearing this week of his diagnosis of Aphasia breaks my heart, he is still a vibrant man to lose his cognitive abilities at 67. For an actor, this loss of language and comprehension really renders him unable to do what he loves.  And I wish him and his family the best. I hope he gets the best care he needs and deserves.

What is Aphasia? It is a language a consequence of damage to areas of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension. It affects speaking, writing, and understanding. It can be caused by stroke (Cerebrovascular accident), Traumatic brain injury, brain tumor, or an infection of the brain. There are three types of Aphasia:

• Broca's Aphasia
• Wernicke's Aphasia
• Global Aphasia

While the type Willis suffers from is not in public knowledge, but serious enough to halt his career. Apparently, some directors have noticed he was not performing at his optimum for a couple of years.

I