Grief, Love & Keeping Her Son's Memory Alive

The late actor's mom sat down with Us to talk about her heartbreaking loss and his final words to her

- by JAIME HARKIN & ANDREA SIMPSON

Holidays were a special time for Pamela Warner and her son, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, but not in a traditional sense. “I remember one Thanksgiving we had tacos,” she tells Us with a laugh. “I said, ‘Well, we've got turkey meat, we've got corn tortillas, lettuce and tomatoes and cheese.’ We had a ball.” She has a similar memory from an Easter they spent together when the actor was a child. “[We got] all dressed up and we went to church, and then we came home and ate tuna fish sandwiches. That was our Easter dinner, and we were just as happy.”

Pamela is holding memories of her late son close to her heart. On July 20, the beloved star of The Cosby Show drowned on a Costa Rican beach after getting caught in a riptide at the age of 54. He was traveling with his wife, Tenisha, and their 8-year-old daughter, who witnessed the tragedy but was not, despite early official reports, in the water. “I’m doing OK,” Pamela says. After spending more than four decades as Warner’s manager, she’s now focusing most of her energy on running the Malcolm-Jamal Warner Living Legacy foundation (Warner’s widow launched a separate endeavor, The Warner Family Foundation, in September). “We had conversations prior that I see now were really goodbye conversations. That has made it a little better for me,” Pamela says. “I can’t think of anything I wish I could have said to Malcolm.”

Speaking to Us, Pamela reflects on how her son would want to be remembered and what really happened on the tragic day he lost his life.

How are you coping?