When you show up to work every day, it's rare for a colleague to become part of who you are.

But when you spend 11 years next to someone sharing real life and real time, they become family.

For years, Kathy Lee Gifford and I sat side by side inviting millions of

people into our mornings. We laughed, we cried, we talked about big things and small things,

and in those moments, we shared a kind of joy that felt both public and deeply personal.

Over the years, Kathy Lee has been so many things, an actress, a singer, an author,

a playwright, a producer, a mother, a wife, a television host. But through every season,

what has never changed is her heart for connection, her faith, and her desire to live with purpose.

Today, we are no longer sitting at the same desk, but we are both

continuing to grow and transform in our own ways. This is a season of new beginnings, of deeper

faith, of celebrating joy, and of continuing to say yes to what feels true. This conversation is

about what it means to keep evolving even after a full life, about friendship

that lasts beyond the shared chapter, about grief and gratitude living side by side, and the

courage it takes to keep becoming who you are meant to be. I'm Hoda Kotbe, and this is my podcast,

Making Space.

Music I'm Hoda Cotty, and this is my podcast, Making Space. Since I've known you, you've said something over and over and over again.

Here it is.

If you have a pulse, you have a purpose.

So what is your purpose right now?

Oh, just getting through the day. The older I get, it's more than how many more hours to go,

Lord, before I get to go night night? It's so bad. It changes, like the seasons of your life.

And if you're hanging on for dear life to the old ones, you're going to miss the present, which is, you know, it's a pun, but the present is a gift. And we never how long the gift know the gift will last. We just don't know. You know, I've lost so many precious people. It seems to, I remember Frank saying at a certain point in his life when he was, he said, Kath, they're all dying or they're all gone now. And I go, it seems that way,

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