Stephen Colbert’s farewell to Amy Cole was brief, but it carried the weight of 16 shared years. His silence said what words could not: this wasn’t just a colleague, but family. Behind the scenes, Amy had been the steady presence through network changes, long taping nights, and the emotional whiplash of political turmoil and global crises, keeping the show’s heart beating when the cameras weren’t rolling.
Friends and coworkers remember a woman who made everyone else’s day easier, even while privately fighting cancer. Her loss ripples from Houston to New York, from studio floors to writers’ rooms, and into the lives of viewers who never knew her name but felt the warmth she helped create. In honoring Amy with charities she cared about, the Late Show community is trying to turn grief into the kind of quiet, practical kindness she lived by every day.