Returning to work for the first time since the death of his mother, Carson Daly thanked his extended TODAY family for their support and shared his condolences to the dozens of people who lost loved ones in the Las Vegas massacre.
Pattie Daly Caruso passed away on Sept. 17 at the age of 73.
“I’m doing okay. I’m healing. Still in stock. Really rough loss. Nobody likes that phone to ring in the middle of the night to get that call,” Carson said Wednesday inside Studio 1A.
“Of course, my heart re-breaks for everybody in Las Vegas, who just lost so many people. They also got that call for somebody that they loved were suddenly taken away from them. It’s an incredible pain.”
Carson thanked viewers who sent support through social media and especially his colleagues, who were among the first to reach out to him after hearing about his loss.
“People here at the TODAY show are the highest quality human beings, not only that I’ve ever worked with — forget that it’s a TV show — that I’ve ever been around,” he said. “I really could not have gotten past this without my faith in god, my family — and you are my family and my friends.”
In addition to her son, Carson’s mother left behind her husband, Carson’s stepfather, Richard Caruso, a daughter, Quinn, and five grandchildren. Her first husband, Carson's father, died when her children were younger.
“She died at 73, but she lived life passionately, twice as much, so she really died at 146,” Carson said, who joked about how his mother “stole everything” to keep mementos of life experiences.
“I’m telling you, going through her things, it’s an example of how much she loved life — she literally was a kleptomaniac,” he said, referring to wine corks, menus from restaurants around the world, rocks, ashtrays and many other items he found among her belongings. “If it wasn’t nailed down, she took it.”
Carson also thanked his NBC bosses for their role in making his mother happy over the years.
“You guys gave my mom the greatest gift ever by employing me on the TODAY show because she could watch me every single morning in her kitchen and I know that she did,” he said. “And I know there’s no place where she’d rather have me be than right back here.”