‘RO’ HOUSE: Ro Klingele never missed an Oprah Winfrey show, beginning when the day her daughter was born 25 years ago.
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Ro Klingele met two of the most significant women in her life at nearly the same time a quarter century ago.
One was her newborn daughter, Stephanie. The other was Oprah Winfrey.
From that day on, Oprah was constantly a part of her life — for 25 years she watched obsessively, never missing a single episode. Oprah helped Ro get through the death of her beloved husband; she was with her at her home as her children grew up; and in the classroom as she taught arithmetic to hundreds of kids.
Yesterday, in the living room of her Staten Island home, she watched the last Oprah show through tears, and reminisced about the best friend she’d never met.
“I was in the hospital giving birth, and one of the nurses came into my room and asked, ‘Would you mind if we turned on this new show?’ I said, ‘Go right ahead,’ and I was hooked,” the retired math teacher said.
“Oprah has been one of the few constants in my life,” said Klingele, whose husband, Edward, 56, died in 2008 of a heart attack before he could realize a lifelong dream.
“He was always trying to get me tickets,” she said. “We never did, but, you know, she was in my living room anyway.”
In 2007, she recalled fondly, “My husband surprised me with a trip to Chicago to get tickets. But the window of opportunity is so small. We passed the studio and couldn’t get in the show. But we had a great time in Chicago, anyhow.”
After Edward died, Klingele’s daily dose of “Oprah” helped her overcome her grief.
“So there’s Oprah at 4 p.m. helping me get through this,” she said.
She had a real connection with the daytime talk queen.
“Oprah’s one of the few people who truly understood what it means to be a teacher,” said Klingele, who taught at a Catholic school for 15 years.
Klingele cried frequently during the show — the hardest when Winfrey thanked her own fourth-grade teacher in the audience.
“It’s 25 years of my life, but I have to move on, just like Oprah,” Klingele said. “She’ll be fine — I don’t know if her fans will be fine.”
During those eventful years, Klingele watched both her kids grow up. Stephanie is a nurse, and her son, Michael, an accountant.
She invited some 20 friends yesterday to her home, which was decorated with dozens of yellow paper stars, each featuring an Oprah fact like: “Her best friend is Gayle King,” or “Oprah starred in ‘The Color Purple.’ ”
Near her front door, she placed a life-sized cardboard cutout of Winfrey.
“She was just a down-to-earth person, and I realized how much good she did for the world,” Klingele said.