Sunday, March 27, 2011

Elizabeth Taylor 'was expecting to come home'

Elizabeth Taylor was expecting to return home from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre before her death from congestive heart failure this week, her friends have claimed.

The Hollywood legend, who made a full recovery from an emergency tracheotomy in 1961 and cardiac surgery in 2006, passed away at the age of 79 in her room at the Los Angeles facility on Wednesday.

Speaking to People, the Cleopatra star's friend Firooz Zahedi revealed that she had begun making plans for her departure from the centre, to which she was admitted with heart failure in January, as her health improved.

"She was hoping to come home and optimistic about everything," the photographer stated. "She had her bedroom at home redecorated."

Further details of Taylor's final days have also been revealed by her longtime friend Debbie Reynolds, who confirmed that the double-Oscar winner had been aware of the seriousness of her condition in the days prior to her death.

The Singin' In The Rain star said: "We talked about how it's really hell getting older. We were complaining to each other about that, like two girls would.

"She expressed how scary it was when you see that it's perhaps the end, to find a way to leave this world and go onto the next."