Somewhere in Heaven by Christopher Andersen

Author:Christopher Andersen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781401396428
Publisher: Hachette Books

By September, Chris, with no small amount of prodding from Dana, decided it was time to step back into the spotlight—if only to set the record straight about his so-called “death wish”—and to thank the 300,000 people who had written him letters of support.

No one had been more persistent than Barbara Walters, who along with everyone else in television considered landing the first interview with Christopher Reeve to be the “get” of the year. Chris had known Barbara for a long time—she interviewed him when the first of his Superman films came out seventeen years earlier—and the two were fond of each other. Dana, in particular, had always been in awe of Walters. She actually made the call to Barbara telling her of their decision to give her the interview. “I couldn’t believe it,” Walters said, “and of course we really had no idea of what to expect. But Dana was always so upbeat and positive. She made it very clear from the beginning that they were very enthusiastic about the interview—they wanted to let people know that Chris was all right.”

The Reeves’ prime-time interview with Walters on ABC’s 20/20 was taped at Kessler over a three-day period and aired on September 29, 1995. During the interview, Chris admitted for the first time that he had briefly considered ending it all (“I’d lie awake at night and think, What’s going to become of me?”) and described movingly how Dana’s love pulled him back from the brink.

“Oh, my God! There’s this commitment—true commitment,” he told Walters. “Dana and I were always in love, but I would say we’ve now transcended into something where our moments together are even more valuable than they ever were.”

Reliving the accident and the grueling months that followed, Chris betrayed not the slightest hint of bitterness. And he spoke optimistically about his prospects for recovery, predicting that he would be walking again within the decade.

“You begin to see there is a future,” he said. “And that the love and support and friendship of family and friends and people around the world, as all these things came to me and I realized their value…Am I lucky. I am so lucky.”

As for his prospects of ever walking again: “I would like to stand up on my fiftieth birthday—that’s seven years from now,” he told Walters, “and raise a glass to everyone who helped me.”

The impact of the Reeves’ joint appearance on television—one of the year’s highest-rated broadcasts—was immediate. Overnight, Chris was being hailed as an inspiration not just for victims of spinal cord injuries but for disabled people everywhere. Not long after, he was interviewed by the Today show’s Katie Couric, who devoted an entire week to exploring the subject of spinal cord injuries.

It was clearly time, Dana believed, for Chris to rejoin the world. She reminded him that on October 17, the Creative Coalition that he helped found was having its annual fundraising dinner at New York’s Pierre Hotel. His close friend Robin Williams was being honored by

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