George Clooney Details Final Moments With Sister Adelia Zeidler 9 Months After Her Death

Grief imparts many lessons. For George Clooney, his final moments with his late sister Adelia 'Ada' Zeidler in December were an important reminder that life is short. 'My sister, who I was very close to, got cancer last year, and she died very quickly,' the 65-year-old shared while receiving the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement during the Venice Film Festival, as seen in video shared to social media. 'I was with her when she died, and there was this feeling being with her, holding her hand when she died, understanding how brief all of this is. It was minutes ago that she and I were little kids together. Minutes ago, we were holding hands as little kids.' And because time with loved ones can be so limited, the Ocean's Eleven actor encouraged those in attendance to make the most of every moment. 'Time goes fast, all of this, and so we have to find nothing but joy,' he continued. 'Find joy in the things that make them miserable. You have to find joy. You have to seek joy out, and you have to demand it, and you have to make sure that you demand it of yourself. That's it.' 'Because look, I don't know what happens after we die,' George—who shares 9-year-old twins Alexander and Ella with wife Amal Clooney—added. 'Nobody I know has yet to come back and tell me exactly how it works out. So, I know this life. And for this life, you have to seek joy. And you have to try to find it for your family and your friends.' Following the death of his older sister at age 65, George praised her courage in the face of a terminal diagnosis. 'My sister, Ada, was my hero,' he told People in a statement Dec. 20. "She faced down cancer with courage and humor. I've never met anyone so brave.' He added that both he and his wife would 'miss her terribly.' Ada's obituary noted she was a 'talented artist,' a skill she brought to her work as an elementary art teacher at Augusta Independent School for several years. While Ada—whose obituary noted she'd been a National Merit Scholar in high school and an engaged member of her local book club in her native Kentucky—kept largely out of the spotlight, she and George maintained their close bond in a way that accommodated his A-list status; she didn't keep his number in her phone in case it fell into the wrong hands. 'I wouldn't want to have it in my phone and then lose my phone,' she told The Columbus Dispatch in 2012. 'He can phone me, and he does occasionally, but email is more convenient for both of us.'