Obviously, the passing of Betty White on the doorstep of 2022 was a blood-boiling coda to a brutal year. She deserved more of an upswing than we got. And, as longtime Golden Girls lovers who are emotionally already in our Zbornak years (and also not that far off physically), we had to honor the loss of a legitimate legend. We gathered the above photos, which demonstrate that Betty knows her way around a publicity still, but please also behold this absolutely gorgeous one that made the Instagram rounds recently. And while share this clip a lot, and in fact Tweeted it just this weekend, you can never watch Rose Nyland discuss The Herring War too many times:

She is also present in one of my favorite, most-use GIFs of all time:

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The love of her life died in 1981 — before The Golden Girls happened, before Hot In Cleveland and The Proposal, before the Bettyssance that brought her to a whole new generation. Before a lot of the things we would say first when we think of her. He “only” knew her from The Mary Tyler Moore Show two different Betty White Shows and a host of other appearances, all of which ON THEIR OWN — had she stopped then — would add up to a full-as-hell career. But she didn’t stop. She kept going. She had a whole second and third and fourth career. She became an icon. Several times.

We didn’t deserve you, Betty. How could we? You were more than one universe should have been able to hold, much less one single body. But we are so lucky we had you. Thank you.

[Photos: Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Nigel Dobinson/Getty Images, De Carvalho Collection/Getty Images, Graphic House/Archive Photos/Getty Images, Smpglobe Photos/Mediapunch/Shutterstock, Smpglobe Photos/Mediapunch/Shutterstock, Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, Archive Photos/Getty Images, Bob Wands/AP/Shutterstock, Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images, Touchstone Tv/Whitt-Thomas-Harris Prod/Kobal/Shutterstock, Douglas C Pizac/AP/Shutterstock, Vinnie Zuffante/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, Evan Agostini/ImageDirect/Shutterstock, SGranitz/WireImage, Stewart Cook/Shutterstock, Bei/Shutterstock, Chris Polk/FilmMagic for Variety Magazine, Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock, Kevin Winter/Getty Images, Eric Charbonneau/Shutterstock, Chelsea Lauren/WireImage, Jim Ruymen/UPI/Shutterstock, Michael Kovac/FilmMagic, Dan MacMedan/WireImage, Mark J Terrill/AP/Shutterstock, Charles Sykes/Shutterstock, Rob Kim/FilmMagic, Amanda Edwards/Getty Images, Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic, Chris Pizzello/AP/Shutterstock, Katy Winn/Invision/AP/Shutterstock, Katy Winn/Invision/AP/Shutterstock, RBL/Bauer-Griffin/Shutterstock]