Elizabeth Taylor's name will forever be synonymous with Hollywood glam. She defined classic cinema in the 1950s and charmed the public right until the day she died in 2011 at age 79.
Prior to that, Taylor had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure and those closest to her were anticipating her death, but it still came as a shock.
Tim Mendelson, her assistant for more than 20 years, opened up about Taylor's death and how he will remember her in an interview with Fox News that was published Thursday.
"She was getting ready to go to New York for an amfAR [The Foundation for AIDS Research] event," Mendelson recalled of the days before Taylor passed away. "She was being honored, but she didn't make it."
Despite suffering from a chronic heart condition, Taylor was always active and on the move. She was also always prepared to be there for friends and family during their darkest times.
She made no exception for Mendelson's mother, who had taken ill and was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery nine months before Taylor died.
The actress was there throughout the ordeal, offering support to her emotional assistant and communicating with doctors. She stayed at the hospital when Mendelson went home and she was the one to inform him that his mother had passed.
Mendelson said Taylor was always "incredibly kind" to him and it shone through during his mother's final moments. This is how he wants people to remember Taylor. Not for her glamour but for her big heart.
"I want people to know what a loving person she was. Yes, there were the jewels and the glamour that came with being a movie star, but she was more than that," he said. "If a friend was in trouble or something serious was happening, she immediately went straight to the problem and helped in any way possible. She did whatever she could in her power that a normal person wouldn't be able to do."
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