A new day has come. Céline Dion opened up in a new interview about how she is preparing for her first holiday season without her late husband, René Angélil, who passed away in January.
“I cannot just live on like, ‘I lost my husband; my children have no father,'” the “Power of Love” singer, 48, told Page Six for a profile published on Thursday, December 8. “I have to stand tall and strong because this is my way of living: Stand tall, be positive, pick your battles, do the best you can and to live for today, not for tomorrow, for today, and know nothing is perfect, not everything you want will happen.”
To celebrate Christmas, Dion is taking her children — René-Charles, 15, and 6-year-old twin boys Eddy and Nelson — skiing in Montana, which used to be a family tradition before Angélil became too ill. As previously reported, the talent manager — who oversaw Dion’s career — died at age 73 after a long battle with throat cancer.
“He put something magic into that snow, into those mountains, and every time we go down, I go down with him,” she told the newspaper of her vacations spent on the slopes of Big Sky. “My children go down thinking about him. Every time I take the lift to go up, I feel closer to him.”
Though she has done her best to move on after Angélil’s death, she can’t help getting emotional as the one-year anniversary of his death approaches.
“I can’t believe it’s going to be a year that my husband passed,” she told Page Six. “I don’t know when Santa Claus is coming, but if I had a wish to make this year, can you just tell him to take his time? I’m not ready! It’s kind of a bittersweet moment and at the same time we need to really make the holidays really happy.”
The Grammy winner continued, “I feel thankful that he doesn’t suffer and he doesn’t have to worry because we got him. He got us and the spirit of the holidays will get us together again. … We’re going to ski again all together and he will be there with us.”
Dion is hoping that her upcoming vacation will allow for some rest, relaxation and self-reflection.
“For me the trip is not to party. It’s to try and meditate, find balance and be at peace with myself and my children and to eat, to play games — whether it’s Monopoly or the telephone game,” she explained. “We are healing each day. My kids are doing really well and eventually you have to just move on. Yesterday is over, tomorrow is not here yet, so today is today.”
