Gloria Vanderbilt, artist, designer and socialite, died Monday morning at home at age 95 surrounded by friends and family, including her son, journalist Anderson Cooper. Cooper shared his thoughts about his mother, per CNN .
“Gloria Vanderbilt was an extraordinary woman, who loved life, and lived it on her own terms. She was a painter, a writer and designer but also a remarkable mother, wife, and friend.”
Viewers of their joint documentary, Nothing Left Unsaid , learned that Vanderbilt had planned to be buried with her husband, Wyatt Cooper, and next to her son, Carter Cooper, who died in 1988 at the age of 23. On the website Find A Grave , it was confirmed that Gloria Vanderbilt Cooper is to be buried at the Vanderbilt Family Cemetery and Mausoleum in Staten Island, New York, in the crypt with her husband and alongside her son.
A photo of Wyatt Cooper’s crypt already has her name inscribed as Gloria V. Cooper, February 20, 1924, with a note underneath.
“Gloria and Wyatt Together Without Fear, Trusting In God, In Ourselves, In Each Other, With Faith, Hope, and Love.”
In the documentary, Nothing Left Unsaid , Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper visit the cemetery where Wyatt and Carter Cooper are interred and talk about the grief of losing a father, a child, and a brother, reports The Daily Mail .
On the HBO documentary, Vanderbilt and Cooper speak frankly about the death of Wyatt Cooper in 1978 as a result of a heart attack and the suicide of Carter Cooper at the age of 23. As the mother and son visit the burial place of both men, they cry recalling Carter’s death after he jumped from the balcony of his mother’s apartment as Vanderbilt stood feet away trying to convince her son to come back into the room.
Gloria Vanderbilt recalled at the time of Carter’s death, she cried so much she didn’t think she had any tears left, but she explained that now she loves to talk about him.
“I love to talk about him. It brings him alive, it brings him close. It helps me sort of share how I felt about him, feel about him.”
Anderson Cooper explained that the death of his father when he was 10 changed who he was, as he believes he was more outgoing before his father passed.
“I think the person I was before was a lot more interesting and outgoing. I became probably much more introverted, and very concerned about what catastrophe was going to happen next.”
Cooper says that the death of his father made him an adult when he was still just a child.
