Carol Burnett Gets ‘Sign’ From Dead Daughter Carrie As She Opens Play They Wrote Together

It’s been twenty years since Carol Burnett’s daughter Carrie Hamilton tragically died of lung cancer, but the comedic legend still feels her presence in a big way.

Burnett Loses Her Daughter

While appearing on the Dear Multi-Hyphenate podcast, as transcribed by People Magazine, Burnett opened up about the “sign” she believes Hamilton sent her the night she opened the play “Hollywood Arms,” which they had written together based off of the former “Carol Burnett Show” star’s memoir “One More Time.” The play had been set to open with the renowned theater director Hal Prince right around the time Hamilton passed away. 

Burnett recalled that after Hamilton died in 2002, she felt like she “didn’t want to get out of bed.” However, she was finally convinced to go to the previews for the show when her husband Brian Miller told her, “Carol, you owe this not only to Carrie but you owe it to Hal to finish.”

It was on her way to Chicago for the previews that Burnett decided to pray to her late daughter. 

“We’re on the plane, my husband and I, to Chicago, and I said a little prayer to Carrie,” she remembered. “I said, ‘I’m going to be doing this but I don’t want to be alone. Be with me. Somehow be with me. I need a sign you’re going be with me even though you’re not present physically.'”

Related: Carol Burnett Reveals Why She Has No Plans To Retire At 89

Burnett Gets Signs From Hamilton

When Burnett got to her hotel, she was welcomed by a bouquet of birds-of-paradise flowers from Prince. She couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw what the flowers were, and this would ultimately be the first of three signs she believes her daughter sent her. 

“[Carrie] had a bird of paradise tattooed on her right shoulder. I called Hal and said, How did you know?’ ” she stated. “‘That was Carrie’s favorite flower.’ And he said, ‘I didn’t. I just called down and said send up something exotic to Carol’s room.'”

The next sign came a day later, when Burnett was having dinner with Prince and her husband. 

“The maître d’ brought over a bottle of champagne, compliments of the management, and on the label it said, ‘Louise,'” she said. “That was Carrie’s middle name and my mother’s name.”

One final sign from Hamilton came on opening night when it started raining.

“Carrie and I always loved rain… and opening night, it rained,” Burnett explained. “So, I don’t know… a coincidence perhaps? But three things and I just felt… I felt her.”

Related: Carol Burnett Reveals Why She Fired Harvey Korman From ‘The Carol Burnett Show’ In Season 7

‘I Think Of Her Every Day’

Hamilton was only 38 years-old when she died of lung cancer just three months after she was diagnosed. She had smoked since she was a teenager, and doctors found. that the cancer quickly spread to her brain. Though it’s been twenty years since her passing, Hamilton is never far from her mother’s mind. 

“I think of her every day,” Burnett told People Magazine in 2018. “She never leaves me. I just feel her.”

“You don’t get over it, but you cope,” she added at the time. “What else can you do?”

Like many mothers and daughters, Burnett had some turbulent years with her daughter, who struggled with drugs and alcohol as a teenager. 

“She got sober when she was 17,” Burnett recalled in that same interview. “I put her in a third rehab place, and oh my God, she hated me. I came to the conclusion that I had to love her enough to let her hate me. She got sober and we started bonding. We wound up working together, writing a play together. We worked together in three shows.”

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‘We Were Joined At The Hip For Awhile There’

Their bond only continued to grow in the years after Hamilton got sober, and by the time she passed away 21 years later, she and Burnett were closer than ever. 

“We were joined at the hip for a while there,” Burnett said in 2020, according to Daily Mail. “‘Carrie died of cancer at 38. But in the hospital, she said, ‘Every day I wake up and decide today I’m going to love my life.’ And that was her mantra.”

There’s nothing worse than losing a child, and it’s devastating that Burnett had to go through that experience. That being said, we can draw comfort in knowing that Burnett is still getting signs from Hamilton, who is watching over her beloved mother from Heaven.