'It's really just incredible,' Kloots tells ET in an exclusive interview.
Nearly three years after his untimely death, Nick Cordero's memory lives on with his wife, Amanda Kloots, and their son, Elvis -- including in their dreams.
In an exclusive interview with ET, the Talk co-host shared her dreams about her late husband, who tragically died in July 2020 from complications of COVID-19 after a three-month hospitalization. The Broadway star, who married Kloots in 2017 before they welcomed their son in 2019, was 41 years old.
"I've only had three dreams of Nick since he passed, but they’ve been the most beautiful, wonderful, heartwarming dreams that, when I wake up, I feel like they really happened," she tells ET's Nischelle Turner.
Every time, Kloots has gotten a message. "He always tells me in the dream that he’s right beside me all the time," Kloots shares.
"It’s really just incredible," she adds. "I think that’s why I wake up and I feel like he’s right with me because he tells me in my dreams."
Dreams are at the center of her newly penned children's book, Tell Me Your Dreams, which was borne out of the nighttime routine she created for her son.
"We had this ritual of sitting in his rocking chair and we sing songs and we say our prayers and then, for some reason, one night I said, 'Do you want me to tell you your dream that you're gonna have tonight?' and he was little, so he didn't even respond. I just started making up this fantastical story," she explains.
Continues Kloots, "I had this idea that Nick was gonna come into the dream and take him on the dream, the adventure, and then I would have nothing to do with it, but then I ended the dream by saying, 'You know I'm gonna wake up. You’re gonna wake up in the morning and [I'll] come and get you out of your crib and you can tell me all about your dream.'"
"We just started doing this every night," she recalls, "and eventually I would say, 'Do you want me to tell you your dreams?' and he would go 'Yes' and then he was participating in the questions. I would ask, 'What color do you want the trash truck to be?' or 'What color do you want the hot air balloon to be?' Whatever I was making up that night of what he was gonna do with Dada."
As Kloots pointed out, the resulting book can be a helpful tool for other grieving families. "I didn't create this story for the purpose of a way to tell Elvis about somebody that he’s lost," she says, "but it is a way for people to talk to their children about those who don't live with us here anymore on this earth."
While it's unclear just how much the youngster will remember of his dad, according to Kloots, Elvis' similarities with Cordero are already showing.
"There are times where Elvis is in his playroom playing the drums and then he'll tell me to play the drums and he gets on his guitar and he’s playing his little kids guitar," she describes. "...It's bonkers just the way his legs are, just the way his head nods. I mean, everything -- I’m just like, 'Wow, you are your dad for sure.'"
Tell Me Your Dreams is on sale starting April 25.
RELATED CONTENT:
