Anderson Cooper took to Instagram on Wednesday to pay tribute to his late mother Gloria Vanderbilt.
“My mom, @gloriavanderbilt, died one year ago today,” the CNN anchor began. “She is alive in my heart and in the hearts of all who knew her and loved her.”
Cooper went on to write about how his mom “had an extraordinary and indomitable spirit, grit, determination, passion, and vulnerability.”
“She experienced great love and horrific tragedies, but she never lost her almost childlike optimism; her openness to the world around her,” he continued. “She chose to remain vulnerable. Others would have closed off their hearts, protected themselves. My mom wanted to see and hear and feel everything….and that is exactly what she did. Bravo, Mom, Bravo.”
He also posted an old photograph of her sitting at an easel and shared memories of his mother via Instagram Stories.
“She lived an epic life as a wife, a mom, a lover, an actress, a designer, a writer and an artist,” he wrote. “When she was told she was going to die in a matter of days, she said, ‘Well, it’s like that old song says, ‘Show me the way to get out of this world, because that’s where everything is.'”
