Rumer Willis is feeling the love, six days after she and her family revealed that her movie star father, Bruce Willis, will no longer act, following a diagnosis of aphasia, a language disorder caused by brain damage that impairs a person’s ability to communicate.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for all of the messages, all of the prayers, for keeping my poppa and our whole family in your thoughts and prayers,” she said on social media. “It truly means the world.”
Rumer, 33, explained that her words came from her father’s other loved ones, too.
“Thank you all for all the sweet messages about my dad. I truly appreciate it more than you know. It means so much, and please know that, even if I don’t get to respond to all of the messages, that they are felt. They are heard. They are seen. And unbelievably and deeply appreciated from, not just me, but our entire family,” she said. “Truly.”
In the same video post, the actress and singer performed several songs, singing and playing the piano, and included a few tunes she’d learned about from her dad, who shares her love of music. One number Rumer played was “Down in Mexico” by The Coasters.
“My dad introduced me to the Coasters when I was a kid,” noted Rumer, whose mom in Demi Moore. “He’s absolutely the reason why I love music, why I love the kind of music that I do love, why I love oldies. All of it. He’s truly the reason why music is such a huge part of my life.”
Before she went into Louis Armstrong’s “A Kiss to Build a Dream On,” Rumer said she would sing a song that was one of her dad’s favorites, then she corrected herself. “I meant to say that it was one of his favorites when I was little that he used to always play me.”
On March 30, the Los Angeles Times reported that Bruce, 67, had exhibited signs of cognitive decline for several years before the announcement, according to people who had worked with him during that time.
The official announcement about his condition, which often occurs in people who have suffered strokes, was met with sadness from those who work alongside him in the entertainment industry, including Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta, Jamie Lee Curtis, Anthony Hopkins and more.
