The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss

Cooper notices how he tends to focus on the future, while Vanderbilt focuses on the past. Vanderbilt tells him that her focus on the past has increased with age, and he says he is always thinking about and making plans for the future. He asks her if she thinks about death, and she says that she is not ready to die yet but that it is always there and something over which no one has control. She tells him how to arrange her body and funeral after her death and notes that she would like to be cremated; she wants some of her ashes placed in his father’s grave while he keeps another part of her ashes. Cooper agrees to her wishes and then asks her if she has any regrets.

She recalls Naney singing a song by Edith Piaf about having no regrets, and Cooper doubts that anyone truly has no regrets. He admits that he regrets not talking to Carter more about their feelings and wonders if things might have turned out differently. Vanderbilt reveals that she has many regrets about the things she did and did not do in her life, and she shares a letter she wrote to her younger self.