Ellen DeGeneres tears up in video 10 days after tWitch's death: 'We'll never make sense of it'

@theellenshow via Instagram

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The collective ache over Stephen “tWitch” Boss’s sudden passing remains strong, but the dancer’s former colleague, Ellen DeGeneres, is encouraging fans to turn to laughter and joy.

On Friday, the comedian and host honored the late emcee of her previous talk show, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” Boss died by suicide at age 40 on Dec. 13.

“The past 11 days have been really tough for everyone,” she remarked at the top of the video selfie, which was dotted throughout with tears from the comedian. “Everyone is in pain and trying to make sense of it. We’ll never make sense of it. And the holidays are hard, I think, anyway. But to honor Twitch, I think the best thing that we can do is to laugh and hug each other and play games and dance and sing.”

DeGeneres went on to urge fans to “do the things that he loved to do, which is dancing. He loved music.”

“I know it seems hard— It seems impossible. But that’s how we honor him and hug each other and tell each other we love each other and let people know we’re there for them and check in on people,” she added. “So happy holidays, everybody. And I know it’s not a happy holiday, but he was pure light. As everybody in the comments said, if you knew him, you knew that. If you didn’t know him, you saw it. Let’s honor him. And think about him to one another.”

The comedian captioned the video with a single heart emoji.

“You helped to change his life and spread the message of joy through dance,” comedian Loni Love replied in the post’s comments section. “He loved you and the show... He loved us all, and that is what is helping me .. to know that He loved us. I’ll miss him, but we will keep dancing for his family and his memory.”

“Checking in on you, Ellen,” another user wrote. “Sending love and thanking you for all the years of laughter and fun.”

In response to the video, one commenter noted, “There are some people you feel a connection to whether you personally know them or not…he was one of those people. “

In the aftermath of Boss’ death, the comedian and former television host has peppered her Instagram and Twitter pages with tributes to the dancer who often appeared on her show as a guest host.

In addition to her selfie video post on Friday, she shared a video of Boss pulling off multiple spontaneous dance moves and captioned the post, writing “He was magic.”

On Thursday, she shared a video of Boss during a segment in which he hosted and interviewed a viral kid dancer by the name of ZaZa.

“I’m heartbroken,” DeGeneres captioned an Instagram post shared on Dec. 14, soon after his death was confirmed by his wife Allison Holker. “tWitch was pure love and light. He was my family, and I loved him with all my heart. I will miss him. Please send your love and support to Allison and his beautiful children — Weslie, Maddox, and Zaia.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com

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