By Lauren Paige Kennedy
WebMD Magazine - Feature
Queen Latifah is many things: Grammy Award-winning singer and hip-hop star. Oscar-nominated actor. Popular talk show host. And executive producer, too. But if you ask this multitalented entertainer what she is first and foremost, she'll say "daughter." And a most devoted one at that.
Born Dana Owens in Newark, N.J., Queen Latifah, 44, has always been close to her family. She credits them with giving her the confidence to succeed. But when her beloved mom, retired high school teacher Rita Owens, 65, was diagnosed in 2013 with scleroderma, a rare autoimmune disorder that in her case is quite advanced, Latifah knew it was time to take on yet another role: caregiver.
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"We didn't recognize what it was," Latifah says. "She just passed out cold, fainted at school one day." With a host of seemingly unrelated symptoms appearing throughout the previous decade, "it took us years to diagnose it. Mom didn't have all the indicators in the scleroderma box. The critical issue for her is pulmonary hypertension, which scleroderma can cause, and which can be life threatening."
As this family crisis unfolded, the singer/actor simultaneously launched The Queen Latifah Show. Recently renewed for its second season, the daytime TV chatfest showcases Latifah interviewing guest celebrities, cooking up healthy recipes, riffing with her comedic chops, offering travel, beauty, and style tips, and hosting an array of musical guests. Add a web site that works very much like an online magazine into the mix, and what you get is a new cross-channel, lifestyle brand.
It makes sense. Hollywood has long known "La" -- as her friends affectionately call her -- to be the rare star who has genre-busting talent coupled with business acumen.
But launching a new show is stressful. Long hours go hand-in-hand with the creative fulfillment that comes with starting something from scratch. Yet, Latifah never wavered from her first priority: her ailing mom.
Called to Care
Scleroderma, which affects fewer than 500,000 Americans each year, is a connective tissue disease that causes thickening of the skin. The condition can harm the lungs, heart, and kidneys, and the internal organs of the digestive system. Symptoms range from mild to severe, and are grouped in two camps: localized and systemic. Rita's were in the latter, more serious category.
Her pulmonary hypertension -- a type of high blood pressure that affects the arteries in the lungs and leads to heart failure of the right side of the heart -- caused the most dangerous and obvious side effects, including fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, and fainting spells.
As a result, Rita requires regular care and medical assistance. "It's the reason we moved her to L.A.," says Latifah, who manages her mother's medical care. Referring to herself as "the point person," she enlisted close friends and family members, including her mother's husband, to help with the ongoing demands of caregiving. "We're a team," she says. "We're in this together."
source : Queen Latifah Reigns Supreme in Her Career and Her Family
