If it weren’t for my 18-year-old daughter, I would never have known who Matthew Perry was.
Although “Friends” ended a year before she was born, my daughter “discovered” “Friends” six years ago when it was on Netflix. She came to me and asked if she could watch it. I had never seen an episode of “Friends” myself, although during the 90’s I did watch plenty of shows of its genre such as “Mad About You” and “Seinfeld”. For whatever reason, I never had thought about “Friends”. I knew of its popularity. Everyone everywhere talked about it. I don’t know why I didn’t watch it. Then.
So here was my barely-a-teen daughter asking me to watch it. I reminded myself that at her age I had watched adult-style shows as well so I of course said yes, and then proceeded to watch “Friends”. We were both hooked. Especially my daughter.
She became so hooked she binged an entire season in a day (and still talks about it). A co-worker of my husband’s got word of our daughter’s love for the show and gifted us her DVD compilation of the entire series. She told my husband the story of how the series got her and her husband through the early years of living together when they didn’t have cable.
Over the years my daughter’s love for the show grew. Her 13th birthday party was “Friends” themed. She owns countless pieces of memorabilia: t-shirts, posters, cups, a game. To this day she still will occasionally watch episodes. In fact, she recently re-started watching the series again starting at season one. Yesterday, prior to learning of Matthew Perry’s death, she had been watching various YouTube clips featuring Perry’s character Chandler Bing. Chandler is her favorite character. So when we learned of the news last night, my daughter took it very hard.
Being on the autism spectrum, my daughter doesn’t handle the subject or even idea of death very well. And it’s even more difficult for her when an artist she really cares for passes away. Today has been better for her. I reminded her that although last night she told me to get rid of the DVDs, it’s important to keep the DVDs because she will always be able to remember Matthew Perry by watching “Friends”. That’s the beauty of people who are in the arts. Their work is preserved forever for everyone to always enjoy it. Today she helped put up the Christmas tree. When it came time to hang her “Central Perk” coffee cup ornament on the tree, she said she wanted it front and center to honor Matthew. Which I thought was sweet.
I know Matthew Perry indicated that “Friends” was the last thing he wanted to be remembered for. And I realize he did so much more than “Friends”, from movies to directing. And we can remember him for those works as well. But “Friends” and his character of Chandler Bing will be the one my daughter will remember him for.
michellemchatton.com 
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