Reba McEntire shared a never-before-told story about her late mother when she caught up with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show on Monday (October 28).
“This is the first time I’ve ever told this story, you know, in public. Because it’s — I guess I was just saving it for you,” McEntire said after she finished telling the story. The legendary country artist remembered a time that she returned to Stringtown, Oklahoma, where she took care of her mother while she was sick. McEntire’s mother died after a battle with bladder cancer in March 2020. She was 93.
In January 2020, McEntire went back to Oklahoma to give her siblings — Alice, Pake and Susie — a break from taking care of their mother. “So, I stayed with her, slept in the bed with her and everything. And when I got to Stringtown, Oklahoma, Alice told me, she said, ‘now, if Mama starts hurting tonight when y’all go to sleep, give her one of these gummies.’ And I said, ‘OK, alright…the whole thing?’ She said ‘yeah, the whole thing.’ I said ‘OK.’
“Well, I wasn’t really comfortable with that, so when we started going to bed, I said, ‘Mama, let’s get ahead of this pain. I’m gonna give you half of this,’” McEntire said. “So she did, and boy, she just went to sleep. And I thought, ‘well, shoot. Mama’s taking it. I need to see what she’s experiencing.’”
McEntire said she took the other half of the gummy and went to sleep. Soon after, she stirred when her mother woke up to use the restroom. McEntire took a moment to get out of bed, and when her mother asked for more ice water, she “looked at the door knowing that that’s a long way away. I got the hall and then the kitchen. And you know how you can fast forward on something real quick? Reba McEntire found in her mother’s kitchen ice all around. I thought, ‘ain’t no way I’m going that way.’ So I just turned to Mama and I said, ‘here you go.’ And she took a sip and she said ‘uck! Where’s the ice?’ I said, ‘we’re out!’”
McEntire discovered the next day she took a 25-milligram dose when she tried half of the gummy that night, though she “still took care of Mama!”
Throughout the conversation, Fallon and McEntire also spoke about the Reba theme song, “I’m A Survivor,” going viral on TikTok, McEntire’s experience on The Voice, the newly-premiered sitcom Happy’s Place and more. Watch it here: