Andrew Garfield got sweet and emotional while visiting Elmo on the Sesame Workshop. The actor opened up to the Sesame Street character about his feelings around missing his mom Lynn, who died in 2019 of pancreatic cancer.
“She passed away not too long ago and you know, I just missed her a lot,” Garfield tells Elmo, who asked him how he was doing. “You don't have to say sorry. It's actually kind of OK to miss somebody.”
“You know, that sadness is kind of a gift,” Garfield added. “It's a lovely thing to feel in a way, because it means that you really loved somebody when you miss them. When I miss my mom, I remember all the cuddles I used to get from her. All the hugs I used to get from her. It makes me feel close to her when I miss her, in a strange way.”
“So, I'm happy to have all the memories of my mom and all the joy she brought me,” he concluded. “And the joy she brought my brother, and my dad, everyone she ever met, everyone around her. So, when I miss her, I remember it's because she made me so happy. So, I can celebrate her and I can miss her at the same time.”
Elmo hugged Garfield and thanked him for sharing about his mom, saying he'd celebrate Garfield's mom too. “Elmo was my mummy's favorite … I love you so much, Elmo, and I always have. And I always will,” Garfield said.
The Sesame Workshop shared the video on Friday as part of an effort to help explain grief through children and how “working through difficult feelings can get easier with time.” The organization is the nonprofit behind Sesame Streetwhich has helped empower children and families for more than 50 years.
Earlier this month, Garfield caught up with CNN's Anderson Cooper and shared how he was remembering his mother. “My mother's qualities that were the most kind of obvious, or apparent, were a gentleness, a kindness, a generosity,” Garfield said. “On her hospice bed, she was more concerned with the nurses than she was with her own pain and discomfort. She was that kind of person.”
