It's not common for a woman on television especially if she's the mom of the family to be funny. She's usually a straight man or foil.

I don't think quantity time is as special as quality time with your family.

It never occurred to me that I wouldn't go to college and have a career - as well as a family - of my own. Both my parents but especially my mother encouraged me and led me to believe that it was possible.

A family is very special. So when a family splits up it's not good it's never good.

I'm often asked if I regret not going to Hollywood. I'm glad I didn't go because if I had I wouldn't have my extended family which is the fabric of my life. Only recently have I realised how special and unusual it is.

We are special because we've been united not by a common race or ethnicity. We're bound together by common values. That family is the most important institution in society. That almighty God is the source of all we have.

Clearly older women and especially older women who have led an active life or elder women who successfully maneuver through their own family life have so much to teach us about sharing patience and wisdom.

The baby boomers are getting older and will stay older for longer. And they will run right into the dementia firing range. How will a society cope? Especially a society that can't so readily rely on those stable family relationships that traditionally provided the backbone of care?

On Thanksgiving I will stop to give thanks that my family is safe and healthy especially because I realize that following the tragedies of this year it is all too real a possibility that they might not have been.

To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become in a special way the servant of the others.