What shall we do without Ms. O?

Most men love to hate her. Many women worship her and some don't know how they will survive without her 60 minutes of daily wit and wisdom. Bring out the tissue boxes because Ms. Oprah Winfrey is kinda calling it quits.

I say 'kinda' in no light manner. The woman comfortably perched on the top of the Forbes fortune list is not leaving the ring without a firm plan in place. She plans to launch her own cable channel and we can all be sure that it will be as much of a success as her book clubs, her angel network, her African school and other many endevours. So perhaps its not yet the end of the line but a chance for a new beginning.

But who is this woman and why does she manage to touch our lives? Is it her constant battle with weight and image that somehow keeps people glued to their cable sets, day after day? Is it the fact that she routinely dishes out money and expensive presents on live TV just because she simply loves a surprise? Perhaps it is all of the above.

For the past 24 years Oprah has broken and shattered stereotypes of varying degrees. She's silenced the critics and won hearts. She even vouched for a black man for president and it is perhaps no coincidence that this man won. She garnered support from celebrities to help raise funds and awareness for the victims of Katrina. Recipes, home make overs, tragedies and victories...if there's a story, you can be sure it is discussed on the Oprah Winfrey show.

If you have a book and no one has read it, chances are that if Oprah mentions the book, you may never have to write another again.

But more than the hype, Ms. Winfrey's vulnerability and her ability to reach out to people from Tokyo to Tulsidas lane is something no network can explain.

When starting out in journalism class, I was once asked if there was one person I'd like to interview. My first and only unrehearsed answer was Ms. Winfrey. Not just because she is this irreplaceable icon, but because she's someone who impacted my own life in a small but significant way.

True there will be hundreds who will try to emulate her and thousands have fallen flat on their faces in the attempt to do so. But perhaps there is a magic in the fact that the world is a slightly better place because Oprah chose to dwell on living your best life as opposed to taking it for granted.

The next 18 months will probably become a melodramatic celebration of the past 25 years. Something tells me that we won't tire of seeing her face on tv, long after the show is no more. Just like FRIENDS is still playing on some network somewhere, more than a decade after it was first screened, Oprah is someone you cannot easily wish away.

Maybe now she'll have time for that interview...

Image courtesy google images. Ms. Winfrey inaugurates her own school in South Africa for underpriviledged girls.