'I'M GLAD I GOT HERE'

IN A NEW MEMOIR, WHOOPI GOLDBERG OPENS UP ABOUT HER MOTHER'S MENTAL ILLNESS AND WHAT IT TAUGHT HER

- JP MANGALINDAN

If Whoopi Goldberg could have her way, her next role would be as a monster, the kind kids fear are hiding under their beds at night, so she could show kids they aren't so scary after all. That's one thing she's learned from a childhood that was, for a time, rife with uncertainty. "I think giving up your fear of monsters is important, because there are a lot of real monsters out there," she explains.

Goldberg, 68, absorbed that lesson first from her late mother, Emma Johnson, a dedicated teacher who once kept a past-itsprime pumpkin in her classroom to help demystify death for her students.

"She's going to show you in the best way possible why you don't need to be afraid," Goldberg reflects.

Goldberg (born Caryn Elaine Johnson) relied on that confidence growing up-even as her mother went on to struggle with mental illness. In her new memoir, Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother and