WINFREY: For many years, Patti's had a serious fear of death.
And with good reason because all three
of her sisters died before the age of 44.
And her best friend died before the age of 44.
Her sisters died of--lung cancer?
Ms. LaBELLE: Mm-hmm. Cancer of the brain and colon cancer.
WINFREY: And colon cancer. And your best friend died of?
Ms. LaBELLE: Breast cancer.
WINFREY: Breast cancer.
Ms. LaBELLE: Mm-hmm.
WINFREY: So can you imagine if in your life all of the people
who are closest to you die by the time they're 44?
So Patti thought she--first of all, you'd
never see your 45th birthday.
Ms. LaBELLE: I never thought I would see 45.
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Ms. LaBELLE: And then when I...
WINFREY: And then when you saw 45 you thought--What?
Ms. LaBELLE: I said, `Maybe I'll make it to 50.'
And then each year I just counted and I just said,
`Please let me make it to 50.'
And when I did I just--I thought it was like--it was won-
I mean, wonderful.
Because I said I made it.
And if I make it to 50, I'm going to be here until I'm 150.
WINFREY: Right.
Ms. LaBELLE: I know that now.
WINFREY: I can't imagine.
Ms. LaBELLE: And you know...
WINFREY: Because it's one sister after another sister passed,
did you think it was like a curse on the family?
Ms. LaBELLE: It--I--I just thought that I will be--after
all of my sisters left, I said, `It's me.'
And so every day I would think I was
going to get something, and I would have
to go get it checked out.
And then I would have to hide it from everybody
because my sisters all hid it from me.
They didn't tell me.
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Ms. LaBELLE: And the--the night of this big
cancer function in Philadelphia my sister Jackie was there.
And she was going through things because we fought a lot.
WINFREY: Yeah.
Ms. LaBELLE: And this particular night is the night
she told me that she had cancer and it just...
WINFREY: This was after the other two sisters
and the best friend had passed.
Ms. LaBELLE: Yes. Right. She was the last.
WINFREY: Yes. So it was just you and Jackie left?
Ms. LaBELLE: Yeah.
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Ms. LaBELLE: And we were...
WINFREY: Fighting all the time.
Ms. LaBELLE: ...fighting all the time because she loved me
more than anybody could love anybody.
She wanted me to make it more than anyone.
She said I was bigger than anybody out there
and--as far as a star.
She said, `Can't you see it?'
I said, `No, girlfriend.' I said,
`And stop pushing me on people.
Stop making them like me.
If they don't like me, it's fine.
Because not everybody's going to like this big mouth.'
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Ms. LaBELLE: So she said,
`Well, they just ought to.'
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Ms. LaBELLE: And she would have--she
had a little attitude about her.
And she would just call me little names
with capital B's--`You old stupid bitch.'
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Ms. LaBELLE: And make me just want
to just kill her because she was only, like, 80 pounds, wet.
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Ms. LaBELLE: And she just kept on at me and just saying,
`I just see you as a big superstar,'
and I just kept fighting her.
And then when she got sick, not knowing
that she was sick, thinking that she wanted my
attention, I gave her money
and material things, and I never, like,
took the time to give her myself.
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Ms. LaBELLE: And then when it came close
to her death, I saw that it was really,
really time for me to wake up and be a
real sister and stop giving money...
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Ms. LaBELLE: ...because all she wanted
was for me to come around her.
WINFREY: Mm-hmm.
Ms. LaBELLE: So one day she asked me to make her
an egg sandwich. And she was right around
the corner at a--this is the hardest story
and this--dumbest thing that I've ever done--to make
her an egg sandwich.
Because she was going through chemo and
she couldn't eat that
stupid food at the hospital.
And so she called and said,
`Could you just make me an
egg sandwich and bring it over?'
And I was, like, thinking that she was,
like, bossing me again. But she wasn't.
She was hungry and she was in pain
and I said, `I just can't come out right now.'
Well, soon after that, maybe two days later,
she--I was on my way to the hospital
and Hattie Mae and Josh Mae were there with her.
And they just called and said,
`Don't leave, Sugar, your sister just passed.'
WINFREY: Mm.
Ms. LaBELLE: So I never got a chance to--to just, like,
be what I should have been to her.
And it just--every night on stage I say this
to the audience.
I say it whenever I get a chance.
Don't take it--anything for granted
and don't think tomorrow's going to come to you
because it might not.
So be as nice as you can to people while they're here.
WINFREY: But listen to this.
This is what makes me cry, the redemption.
I cry from the redemption.
Patti's sister Jackie always loved butterflies.
Ms. LaBELLE: Oh, right.
WINFREY: When she was a little girl she used to try
to catch butterflies and they used to catch
butterflies together.
Ms. LaBELLE: Yes.
WINFREY: On the day of Jackie's funeral
a butterfly came to Patti's house.
Ms. LaBELLE: Mm-hmm. It did. It did.
WINFREY: The same butterfly shows up at the
funeral in the church...
Ms. LaBELLE: Excuse me. Uh-huh.
WINFREY: ...and landed on Patti's shoulder.
That sounds unbelievable.
Ms. LaBELLE: I know. And that's why we didn't want to
put it in the book because it sounds so unreal.
But it was her way of saying to me,
`It's all right because you were the best sister to me that
you could have been.
But--thank you.' But every, every day I still
beat myself up because I could have
been much more.
But that butterfly was saying, `It's all right.'
WINFREY: Yeah.
Ms. LaBELLE: I've--I've let go of--of anything...
WINFREY: Because how many butterflies show up at a funeral?
Ms. LaBELLE: That's what I'm saying, Oprah.
WINFREY: I mean, really, if the butterfly's...
Ms. LaBELLE: And--the butterfly--and...
WINFREY: ...at the funeral, what else do you need?
Ms. LaBELLE: ...it was one of--it was those gold ones with the black...
WINFREY: What else do you need?
Ms. LaBELLE: ...stripes going--it was a butterfly. And--oh...
WINFREY: Jesus sent a butterfly. Do I need to come?
Ms. LaBELLE: No. He sent the butterfly. I love it. That's right.
Honest to God.