From the first moment they met, Carole and Carolyn shared a special bond. "We instantly liked each other," Carole says. "And we didn't really know why, because I didn't know her. She didn't know me. But we just clicked in a way that had never happened for me before…and it hasn't happened since. I saw something familiar in her, and she did in me."
The two women came from similar, working-class backgrounds and grew up right across the Hudson River from one another. Carole was raised in Suffern, New York, Carolyn in Yonkers—far from the lavish estates of the Kennedy family. Carole barely recognizes the glamorized version of Carolyn seen in photos…the woman she remembers usually wore sweatpants and T-shirts, with her hair all a mess. Carole also remembers Carolyn sitting with her in the hospital room for 12 hours at a time, rubbing Anthony's feet. Carolyn would also make up excuses to get Carole out of the hospital—like a need to buy tulips or a quick trip to the mall.
"I never told her this, but she saved my life so many times," Carole says. "So many times. She was so much fun. She's just like the girlfriend every girl should have."
