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89th Annual Academy Awards - Arrivals

Source: Kevork Djansezian / Getty

Viola Davis finally has the Academy Award she deserves. The acclaimed actress won the statue for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars, for her role in Fences. And thank God we had a box of tissues ready when she delivered her acceptance speech.

“There’s one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered, one place, and that’s the graveyard,” she began. “People ask me all the time, ‘What kind of stories do you want to tell Viola?’ And I say, exhume those bodies, exhume those stories, the stories of the people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition. People who fell in love and lost.”

Davis went on, “I became an artist, and thank God I did because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life. So here’s to [playwright] August Wilson who exhumed and exalted the ordinary people.” She didn’t stop there, thanking the film’s director Denzel Washington, “Oh Captain, my captain… Denzel Washington, thank you for putting two entities in the driving seat. August and God, and they served you well.”

She thanked her parents, saying, “To Dan and May Alice Davis, who are the center of my universe. The people who taught me, good or bad, how to fail, how to love, how to hold an award, how to lose. To my parents, I am so thankful that god chose you to bring me into this world.” And went on to finally thank her husband and daughter, “My heart, you [husband, Julius Tennon] and Genesis, teach me everyday how to live, how to love. I am so glad that you are the foundation of my life.”

The speech left many on Twitter on the floor in tears.

We couldn’t be happier for her.