The last time Nia Vardalos saw her dad, Gus, in person was at Christmas when she was visiting her parents in Winnipeg, Canada.
Gus, the inspiration for Nia’s father in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” was 87 and in declining health. “It was like watching your favorite wind-up toy slowly slowly losing its batteries over the last year,” Nia tells Variety. “At Christmas we were all there.
He was on the couch, happy and mobile. He wasn’t incapacitated but not quite running a marathon…I had a feeling this might be it.” When it was time for Nia to leave, she recalls, “There was a moment that flashed between my dad and me when we said goodbye…I think he was saying, ‘This really is goodbye.” Within a few weeks, Gus was hospitalized.
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