A Farewell To Michael Zaslow

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A Farewell To Michael Zaslow:

His heroic fight, the moving memorial service -- plus special tributes from his family and co-stars. By William Heller. From Soap Opera News, December 29, 1998.

"He was one of the greatest people that I swear ever lived on this earth," 13 year old Helena Zaslow told an overflow crowd at the Riverside Chapel in Manhattan. More than 500 friends and family members were there to celebrate the life of, and mourn the passing of Michael Zaslow, the Emmy-winning actor who died of a heart attack December 6 after a courageous and public battle against Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS). "Dad was really strong and I'm going to try to be really strong like him." There's a lot of Zaslow in his younger daughter -- he's also survived by his daughter Marika, 16, and his wife, psychotherapist Susan Hufford.

"How do I remember Michael?" asked his longtime GL co-star Maureen Garrett (Holly). "As a fighter. He fought about everything. He fought about lighting [on the set], he fought about smoking in the building. He fought for the actors with the union for health benefits and residuals. And fought -- with the Creative Coalition -- for gun control. And then he fought this disease. Right down to the last minute he was engaged in battle. He always had a flag unfurled. He was such a passionate man."

Sadly, Susan Hufford recalled her husband's last days: "He was feeling so much better that in a week we were going out of the country to take part in a bona fide medical procedure that's presently unavailable in the United States -- but one that the medical community believes will revolutionize the course of medicine. This scientific breakthrough will offer hope of treatment and a cure to all those with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and the sister disease ALS. We're so close. And now it's more important than ever for us to keep up the fight to reach ZazAngels' goal of a cure by 2000.

There were tears, applause and laughter at Zaslow's jam-packed funeral service. And there was music. Young Helena performed a heart-wrenching violin solo, a Handel composition that showed she's definitely her musically talented father's daughter.

On December 6, the day Zaslow died, Helena was performing in a recital, with her mother and older sister looking on. Zaslow was in his West Side Manhattan apartment, filled with family photos, musical instruments, posters from plays he'd been in, his Emmy Award. With him was the male caregiver who'd held Zaslow's father, Milton, when he took his last breath. Now, in an ironic twist, that same man was with Michael, cradling him in his arms as he died.

Later that day, the family went to nearby Roosevelt Hospital, where Zaslow had been taken. Marika, who bravely told the assemblage at Riverside that she didn't have a speech prepared and made one anyway, was eloquent. "When I went to the hospital and went in there, I still felt that energy he always had." She explained that matter cannot be destroyed, energy can only be transferred. "His energy," Marika said of her father, "transferred everywhere. He left us an amazing spirit. He will always be with us."

THE FIGHT GOES ON

"Treatment and cure of ALS is not a dream," Susan Hufford told mourners. "It will be a battle both political and medical. Michael urges you to enter the fray." Donations in the battle against ALS can be sent to: ZazAngels/ALS Association of Greater New York, 116 John Street, Suite 1304, New York, NY 10038.