‘The Jeffersons’ Legend Discloses Terrifying Health Scare

The Jeffersons icon Marla Gibbs is opening up about the brain aneurysm and stroke that nearly killed her — and how she fought her way back through recovery.

Gibbs, who played housekeeper Florence on the iconic sitcom for all 11 of its seasons, revealed her 2006 health crisis in her new memoir, It’s Never Too Late, revealing that she got into plenty of “trouble” as her strength and memory began to return in rehab.

“Most people do not survive brain aneurysms, so I knew God still had plans for me,” the 94-year-old actress wrote in an excerpt of her memoir published by PEOPLE ahead of its Tuesday release. “The more my strength and memory came back, the more trouble I got into. As I said before, I’m Gemini and my mind is always curious and always working … not always for the better.”

For example, Gibbs said she was determined not to use diapers while being rehabilitated, and so every time her care staff would leave the room, she would attempt to sneak to the bathroom, “and end up on the floor” due to her physical limitations.

Her family ultimately had to ask that Gibbs be tied to the bed, but she “watched carefully” as her nurses tied the restraints, “so I could untie myself as soon as they left.” Ultimately, however, Gibbs would end up back on the floor.

“I said to myself, ‘Marla we gotta stop ending up down here, we’re not getting anywhere,’” she wrote. “There was just something inside me that kept saying, ‘It ain’t over.’ But when I got home and looked at the old woman staring back at me in the mirror I said, ‘Maybe it is over.’ Maybe my days as an actress are gone.”

The 227 alum reflected further on her difficult recovery, which “took every ounce of physical, mental and spiritual strength [she] could muster,” leaving her to sink into “a deep depression” that made her wonder if it was “time for [her] to go.”

As Gibbs grew stronger, she began to attend outpatient rehab for occupational, physical and speech therapy, but her eagerness to progress came with some drawbacks as well, as she fell and hit her head while attempting to show her friend that she had been working on a light jog with her rehabbers.

“It was embarrassing but mostly it was disheartening,” she recalled. “I complained to the rehab center, and the nurse said, ‘We didn’t tell you to jog at home!’”

After that, Gibbs “finally accepted where [she] was at” in her recovery. “I had always been an independent woman who juggled multiple projects,” she wrote. “Now, I was totally dependent and could do nothing. Acceptance of where I was in my recovery was essential to me healing, and I think acceptance is key to healing in life.”

It’s Never Too Late is on bookshelves everywhere now.