Majel Barrett Roddenberry – A Truly Classy Lady Has Moved On
In my inbox this evening, I got an email stating that Majel Barrett Roddenberry, best known for her roles on Star Trek as “Nurse Chapel”, “Lwaxana Troi” and even the voice of the Enterprise computer, if not also as the wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, had passed away. Naturally, my first reaction was of sadness upon hearing the news. But it also reminded me of my memories of meeting her and of something that came out of that encounter. It’s a wonderful memory and upon hearing news like this, I can’t think of a better time to share it.
Some years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Majel Roddenberry at one of those fan-run conventions, which if you’ve ever been to one you’d know it to be one of the best types to go to as the guests are allowed to mingle freely with the fans and soon, the ‘star’ veneer comes off and you get a chance to really connect and meet the person behind the persona. Over the course of this two-day convention, I got the chance to have real conversations with Majel and talk about all sorts of topics outside of Star Trek.
And it was during one of these one-on-one chat sessions that I opened up to Majel about a letter I had written to her after the passing of her husband. I spoke in detail about the letter and what I had hoped I had conveyed in it. She listened to me intently and her response to what I had just told her was rather surprising – she said that she never got my letter. Now, I’m sure at the time of Gene’s passing, she must have received countless letters from fans around the world, so I never expected her to remember my letter among all of them. Given how open and familiar our conversations had become, I told her that I didn’t expect her to remember my letter among the numerous ones that she got. She replied that a heartfelt letter like the one I had just described would be one that she wouldn’t soon forget. As you can imagine, I was moved by that remark, all the more so because I could see that she really meant it.
Well, about a year or so after that convention, I got a letter in one of those nice stationary envelopes you see in those fancy paper shops. While it was addressed to me at my home address, the return address simply had “M.J.R” along with a home address from California. Of course, the initial thought I had was that perhaps the letter was from Majel – until I remembered that she didn’t have my address and this wasn’t from some P.O. Box which I’m sure she’d use to protect the privacy of her home address. So, I opened the envelope to see who it could be from and as it turned out, it was indeed a letter from Majel on her own personal stationary. In the letter, she told me how after she came back from the convention where we had met and spent all that time talking, she went through all the letters she had got after Gene had passed away to try and find my letter, but she never found it. But now, almost a year later, her personal assistant was clearing out some documents or something and buried among them was the very letter that I had told her about. She wrote how the letter I had written was as beautiful as I had described and even though it had been some time after Gene had passed, she was glad to now have this letter in her possession. And as she had done at the convention, she gave me a heartfelt thanks for sharing my thoughts and feelings with her and told me how much that meant to her.
As you can imagine, this letter came as a complete surprise to me. In fact, I must have re-read that letter half a dozen times to make sure I was reading it right. It had been several years at that point since Gene’s passing and at least a year since I met her. But here was this letter addressed to me from Majel where she clearly showed that she remembered our talks and how hearing about this letter of mine had so moved her that she had to find out what became of it. And once she found it, she had my address and took the time to send me news about how she had finally found my letter after all this time. Now granted, in the grand scheme of life, we’re all the same, we’re all equal. And yet, someone like her no doubt meets hundreds of people, each with their own stories and memories. For her to reach out to me all that time later to once again thank me for my words . . . well, as you can see, it’s something that’s still fresh in my mind.
I know it’s been said – and I suspect it will be said numerous times in the days to come – that Majel Barrett Roddenberry really appreciated fans of her husband’s work and took to heart many of their stories and memories. By sharing this personal story of mine, I’m hoping that people will see that this notion is very much a true reflection of who she was.
You’ll have to forgive my rambling on this one, but when you meet someone as classy as that, it’s hard not to get a little emotional when you find out that they’ve left our fragile little world.
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That really is a fantastic experience! It really does give me even greater respect for this woman who could have very easily let the fame she garnered from Trek take her in a very different direction. Instead, she stayed true to what matters most in this life, people.
Thanks so much for sharing this experience!