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Teddi Mellencamp is having the difficult conversations with family that come with advanced stages of cancer.
After the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star confirmed that her diagnosis had advanced into Stage 4 melanoma earlier this month, she revealed on her podcast, Two Ts in a Pod, that she has begun having devastating conversations with her family about the future, including her father, singer John Mellencamp.
“Yesterday, my dad calls eleven times in a row. Finally I answer, and I’m like, ‘I’m in the bath! Let me live a little,’” she said. “He goes, ‘I just want to make sure you’re going to be in our group family mausoleum.’”
Teddi asked if there would be room in the mausoleum, which is located in Indiana, for her children as well. Mellencamp has three children: Slate, 12, Cruz,10, and Dove, 5.
“’I said, “I have kids, so where are they going to go?’” she recalled.
John explained that there would be room for everyone. “He’s like, ‘Well, there’s going to be the top five and then we’re going to have little areas around it, and then that’s where everyone’s going to be buried,’ ” Teddi said.
She then asked her father if she had to make a commitment at that moment, prompting him to tell her, “You’re doing your will right now, so you may as well put it in there.”
This was true, as Mellencamp noted in an interview with Us Weekly earlier this month that she was thinking about practical logistics such as her will.
“Well, a little PSA: Get life insurance early,” she told the outlet. “And do your will. Doing all of those things once you’ve already been diagnosed with cancer isn’t a dream. That’s really hard. Hopefully you never get sick, but do it before you get sick.”
Mellencamp later discussed in the interview how her cancer journey has been. “This is definitely the hardest thing [I’ve faced in my life], but now it feels less hard,” she said. “When I was in the ICU, it was incredibly difficult because I had no memory. One day, I realized it was my daughter’s birthday, and I couldn’t be there for it; it was really sad. It’s still sad when I can’t be there for my kids the way I’d normally be.”
It’s beautiful to see a public figure like Mellencamp being so open and honest about the process of dealing with something as hard as this.
Mellencamp took to her Instagram recently, where she wrote, “Sometimes I am so focused on ‘being strong’ that I forget I am allowed to be sad, cry it out, and feel very alone. I love my kids, friends, and family so much and am forever grateful to them but dang today is one of those days.”
We’re sending all the love to Teddi and her family during this difficult time.
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