Farewell To Olivia Newton-John: We'll Always Be 'Hopelessly Devoted'

LONG ISLAND, NY — I was eighth grade the year "Grease" came out; a group of our friends took the bus from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to 86th street, to see the film together. It was the first time I'd gone out with friends to see a movie, without my family — my first foray into teenhood, into tomorrow.

And oh, how that movie impacted not just me, but my generation, and all the generations to follow. That's why, when word spread Monday that Olivia Newton-John had died at 73 after a long battle with breast cancer, collectively, we cried.

Growing up, we were all a little bit Sandy, the character Newton-John played in the iconic "Grease" alongside her Danny, the role John Travolta made his own with his inimitable swagger and endearing grin.

Olivia Newton-John was, for girls like me, girls who grew up in Lutheran school, good girls — she was who we all secretly wanted to be. The girl who could shed her poodle skirts and pony tail for those to-die-for spandex pants and red stilettos, stamping out that cigarette with just the right mix of sassy and seductive. She was a good girl, but in the last scene of that movie, she was just the right amount of bad to make us all wish we had the courage to buy those pants and win the hearts of our greaser guys, guys willing to give it all up and letter in track — for love.

Some of us did buy those pants. I still have mine, tucked away with all the treasures from a time when anything seemed possible, when we could sing into our hairbrushes and all be Sandy, if only for a moment.

Because, along with her iconic turn as Sandy, there was, first and foremost, Olivia Newton-John's extraordinary voice. The voice of an angel. Who hasn't heard "Hopelessly Devoted To You," and cried. Cried for the loves we've ached for and lost. . the loves that seemed ever elusive and destined to end in heartbreak.

Her husband John Easterling announced the sad news on social media.

"Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer. Her healing inspiration and pioneering experience with plant medicine continues with the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund, dedicated to researching plant medicine and cancer. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that any donations be made in her memory to the @onjfoundation," he wrote.

For those of us who've grown up with her, Olivia Newton-John seemed both a superstar and yet, so very approachable, an everywoman we could imagine as a friend.

Personally, as an ardent Bee Gees fan, I gloried in the "One Night Only" concert I saw in Las Vegas, where Barry Gibb paid tribute to Olivia Newton-John and their years of friendship. She sat front and center with her beloved daughter Chloe, just beaming. I've never met her, but like so many, her image was one of approachability, the girl next door you could imagine going to slumber parties with, and later, the mom who loved her girl just like we all adore our own kids.

And, like the world who cried tears at her loss, her own lifetime friends expressed just how deeply those bonds meant.

John Travolta wrote a message on Twitter that had us sobbing: "My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better," he wrote. "Your impact was incredible. I love you so much. We will see you down the road and we will all be together again. Yours from the first moment I saw you and forever! Your Danny, your John!"

With her passing, Newton-John took a piece of collective youths, our childhoods, our innocence. Somehow, our forever Sandy, the girl with the golden hair and silken voice, seemed as though she'd beat cancer again, come skipping out into the sunshine, singing, ready to face her future with her husband, her daughter. Her grit and resolve in the face of the unthinkable over decades of fighting cancer made it seem that somehow, she'd be the one to defy the odds for a few decades more — to find a real life happily ever after that Hollywood makes seem so possible.

But now we're left with just the echoes of her angel-pure voice, her smile — another piece of our pasts, gone forever.

And together, with her Danny, we'll all remain hopelessly devoted — to the woman who made a mark on so many lives, forever.