Al Roker Reflects on Life One Year After Hospitalization: ‘Can Turn on a Dime’
By Movieguide® Contributor
TODAY host Al Roker is reflecting on life one year after he was hospitalized due to blood clots.
“I feel pretty good…I feel like I’m back to like 100%,” he said during a recent phone interview with TODAY.com.
Even though the host is not one to “look back” and would much rather “look forward,” he can’t help but give thanks for his recovery.
“Life can turn on a dime…We know that intellectually, but when you’re faced with it, it really does hit home,” Roker explained. “(Life) is an ephemeral gift that we’re given, and you need to appreciate and honor it.”
“I’ve had a number of visits to the hospital, and I’ve been used to snapping back pretty quickly, but as we get older, we don’t snap back as quickly,” he said. “I think (for me) it was a combination of severity and age…but it may take you longer, and you just have to kind of accept that.”
Roker revealed that he often quoted THE INCREDIBLES throughout his recovery process: “We get there when we get there.”
“Maybe you didn’t get there as fast as you wanted to, but as long as you get there, it’s OK,” he added.
Roker is thankful for the people who helped him through.
“It was the little things that are not so little…like having the TODAY show staff show up and carol, that was the first time I really got emotional,” he admitted. “I don’t think you can discount the power of positive thinking and the power of prayer, and I was the beneficiary of a huge amount of both.”
He also shared that finding out his daughter was pregnant encouraged him to get better.
“I think more than anything else, knowing that she was coming along over this last year” helped Roker’s recovery, his wife Deborah Roberts said. “Because it’s been a progression, but you’ve just gotten stronger and stronger.”
Now, Roker puts his health first and even begins his day on the treadmill while going over his weather briefings.
“This way, I’ve knocked out 6,000 to 7,000 steps on the way to 10,000 for the day,” he explained.
“One of the many things I’ve learned from my wife is we do what we can. If you can’t do four miles, what if you do a mile or a half a mile?…Maybe it’s not everything you wanted to do, but tomorrow is another day and you did something,” Roker said.
Movieguide® previously reported on Roker:
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE on “Your Mama’s Kitchen,” Roker felt he ‘ruined’ Thanksgiving last year due to his hospitalization.
“It’s no secret that I had a severe medical issue, and to be completely honest, I almost died. I didn’t know it at the time,” he said.
“But I missed Thanksgiving, and almost missed Christmas,” he added. “And I forgot how important those touchstone moments are.”
“I felt, in a sense, badly because I ruined Thanksgiving for the family and I was not going to let that happen for Christmas,” he continued.
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