"Once you start to question your life you get to a higher level of awareness. It's like turning a light on--Voilà you see you have choices and choices are sacred." ~ Naomi Judd
Born Diana Ellen Judd on this day in Ashland, Kentucky, country star Naomi Judd (1946-), single mother to Wynonna and Ashley, was tops in the entertainment field when diagnosed in 1991 with the deadly Hepatitis C.
"Slow down, simplify, and be kind," said the multi-Grammy winner, who retired and fought the life-threatening liver disease with positive passion and faith. She recounted her experiences with candor and inspiration in the wonderful 1993 autobiography, Love Can Build a Bridge.
"Information is our most valuable tool in dealing with reality and warding off fear of the unknown," she wrote.
With a degree in nursing, Judd admitted that some doctors told her she would die. "Medical science is wonderful, but I gotta go to a higher authority," she explained. "I put my faith in the Lord and I refused to give up."
Her virus has been in remission since 1997 and in March 2000 she joined Wynonna in a comeback tour. "Hope is a gift we give ourselves, and it remains when all else is gone," the country beauty said. Modern Maturity Magazine in 2001 voted Naomi (and pal Dolly Parton) "the sexiest women in boots."
"A dead end is just a good place to turn around," said the superstar in her buoyant book, Naomi's Breakthrough Guide (2004).
In 2005, she debuted of her Sunday morning TV talk show Naomi’s New Morning, a celebration which continued to translate faith and values, humor, common sense, and belief in the mind-body-spirit connection.
