Jimmy Fallon made his return to late night Monday after canceling shows last week to mourn the passing of his mother, Gloria.
At the beginning of the show an emotional Jimmy Fallon shared this story with the audience:
“When we were little, my mom would walk us to this store, me and my sister, and we would hold hands and she would squeeze my hand three times and say, ‘I love you,’ and I would squeeze back, ‘I love you, too,’” fighting back tears he continued, “last week I was in the hospital and I grabbed her and squeezed ‘I love you.’ I just knew we were in trouble, ya know? I feel so grateful to be able to do this every single night and I’m very appreciative of all the support from all of you that my family received over the past week, we’re going to continue to work really hard to bring some light and some laughter into the world. Thank you for watching, thank you for helping me and my family recover from this loss. Mom, I’ll never stop trying to make you laugh. I love you.”
Taylor Swift was not originally scheduled to be on the show, but in an effort to make Jimmy’s return to the show special, his team at The Tonight Show surprised him by reaching out to Taylor Swift, last minute, and asking her to perform on the show. In true Taylor fashion, she agreed without hesitation. Tonight Show writer/producer Mike DiCenzo explained how the whole surprise came to be in a thread of tweets. Read the heartwarming story below:
A few words (i.e. a thread) about tonight’s show. It was our first show back after Jimmy’s mom passed away…
— Mike DiCenzo (@mikedicenzo) November 14, 2017
