Paul Walker's Mother Shares Heartbreaking Memories of Day Son Passed Away in Fiery Crash
To me, movie stars have always possessed this sheen of invincibility. They’re the people you see on screens of all sizes, on billboards and magazine covers and newspapers.
They’re everywhere, and they’ll always be everywhere — right? Well, if history has taught us anything, celebrities are anything but immortal.
They suffer the same diseases and evil twists of fate as we do. And in the end, they have to walk through the same valley of shadow as we do.
Few actors remind us of that as much as Paul Walker. The blond, blue-eyed native of Glendale, California, rose to fame on the heels of action blockbusters such as “The Fast and the Furious.”
Renowned for their audacious car-chase scenes, the movie and its sequels made drifting and other high-octane motorsports a household name in America. Soon enough, Walker was behaving in real life as though he was his on-screen persona.
Not only did he have an extensive car collection, he liked to race them at high speeds. That was what eventually led to his death.
On November 30, 2013, he was driving with his friend Roger Rodas when his Porsche Carrera GT crashed. According to CNN, the vehicle was traveling anywhere from 80 to 93 mph when it struck a light pole.
Both men perished. Now his mother, Cheryl Walker, is revealing what happened on that fateful day as part of a documentary about his life.
“We were having this good conversation, and he’d forgotten about an event he had,” Cheryl said, according to People. “He got a text and said, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m supposed to be somewhere!’”
The Daily Mail reported that the event was a charitable one. He was trying to raise money to benefit the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
“I think so many people think, ‘Oh, he was just a movie star who was killed in a car accident,’” she added. “But there was so much more to him.
“That was just a piece of who he was. He was an amazing man.”
Walker was passionate about helping the less fortunate and created his own charity dubbed Reach Out Worldwide. He also adored his daughter Meadow.
“He loved her. He was so proud of her,” his brother, Cody, told ABC News.
“He also carried a lot of guilt for not being the traditional type of father that was necessarily there every step of the way. He would say things like, ‘I only have this many more years until she’s all grown up, until she turns 18.”
Now age 19, Meadow is trying to do her late father proud. She has created her own nonprofit, The Paul Walker Foundation, to help feed the hungry.
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