A letter my father wrote to me while preparing his book, “I Remember It Well.”

Everyone knows my mother’s genius. Too few realize Mama and Papa were equal talents. Vincente Minnelli reinvented cinema. I asked my father about to put pen to paper about his love affair with Mama, he wrote this:

My Darling Liza,

I married your mother on June 15, 1945. We loved each other so very much. Before we were married, your mother told me, “Vincente, I know I’m taking too many pills. But, with you to protect me, I’ll stop. And I don’t give a good god damn what anybody else thinks.”

We flew to New York for our honeymoon and took a long walk by the river, near Sutton Place. Your mother reached into an elegant handbag that I had gifted her and said, “Darling, please hold my hand.” I did. She grabbed me so tightly that her fingernails broke the skin. Out of the handbag, Judy pulled bottles of prescription medicine. With a dramatic sweep of her arm, all the bottles went flying into the river. Until you were born, it was the best present of my life.”

The rest of what my father wrote is too intimate to share. I pray it gives you insight into how hard, how long my mother fought the disease of Substance Use Disorder. My mother was so brave, and I am proud of her every day of my life. Mama had very narrow hips making natural childbirth impossible, as they started the anesthesia for the C-Section, Mama cried out, “I haven’t taken anything! Please make sure the medicine doesn’t hurt my baby.”

God, is it any wonder that I love my parents so very much? I don’t give a god damn what anybody else thinks. I had, for me, the best parents in the world. My parents always said, despite the films and love they made, I was their best production.

“Embraceable You” is my father’s favorite song and the last one I ever sang to him.

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