Diana often had the opportunity to share the screen with Laura, as she began acting in several of her mother's films when she was a child. Just recently, the mother-daughter duo got the chance to step into the spotlight once again on Mike White-producing a TV show Enlightened from 2011 to 2013, in which Diane played the on-screen mother of Laura's character.
However, in recent years, Diana's health has deteriorated. In 2018, she revealed that she was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease she developed after unknowingly being exposed to pesticides sprayed in her area. With only three to six months to live, she and her daughter were inspired to work together again to preserve their memories and co-authored a book called Darling, baby, mine.
“We told each other everything,” Laura said in an interview. Today in 2023. “She said she really felt like finally releasing some of the grief and problems and heartbreak in her life, and us laughing at the absurd fights and stupid things we'd been through, was actually so healing physically and emotionally.”
And for 58-year-old Laura, it was an opportunity to see her mother in a different light.
“I was shocked at how little I asked her,” Laura noted. “Even the simplest things. I was raised by an actor, I worked with my mother, but I never asked, “Why did you want to be an actress from this tiny town in Mississippi?”
