laura wright carly gallery
Credit: ABC

The actress’ biggest fear — being there in the end — “turns out to be the biggest gift.”

When Laura Wright received the call in the fall of 2018 that she had to hurry up and fly to her mother Betty’s hospital bedside in Myrtle Beach, SC, she hoped that she’d be too late to say goodbye. “Because I was so afraid to watch her die,” she confided in General Hospital husband Maurice Benard during a recent edition of his State of Mind vlog (which you can watch in full below).

Wright wasn’t too late, however. And it turned out to be “the biggest blessing in my life. I spent the next four days sleeping on the floor next to her bed, every four hours giving her her morphine.”

At one point, “I got to have this incredible moment when I was rubbing lotion on her legs,” Carly’s portrayer added. Since their household had put a premium on looks, “she was very vain” and at this time “ashamed of legs.” So Wright was able to remind her mom of all that those legs had done in her lifetime — carried her and children and grandchildren and…

Of course, Mom’s eyes filled with tears, but, Wright noted with a laugh, she kept hitting her daughter to make her stop talking, because if she cried, she’d cough with the oxygen mask on!

More: Laura Wright’s beautiful post-separation transformation

 

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A post shared by Laura Wright (@welcometolaurasworld)

Finally, the time came to let go. Hospice representatives explained to the family that removing Betty’s oxygen mask — the only thing keeping her alive at that point — was an option. “Everyone got to go say goodbye, and then I had to go take the breathing mask off my mom,” Wright explained. “And that was… ”

Hard. Obviously. Impossibly hard. So hard that “I actually went into like a Carly mode,” the Emmy winner said. “I thought, ‘You’re an actor. You can do this. Just become someone else in the moment.’”

More: What’s *next* for Sonny and Carly

Wright feared that when she removed the breathing mask, her mother would suffer, that she would be left gasping for air. But instead, “it was a very peaceful, beautiful moment,” she said. “Taking that mask off her face, I released her.

“She could’ve been alive for another four days of the body shutting down,” she added, “[going through] awful things that I would never know if she could understand.” Wright saved her from that. “And she never looked more beautiful.”

 

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A post shared by Laura Wright (@welcometolaurasworld)

While you reach for a tissue — oh, already have? — pay your respects to all moms via the below photo gallery of stars and their real-life mothers. Then, if you can, call your own; you’ll be glad you did.