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Dolly Parton is “getting better every day” after she opened up about “health challenges” earlier this year.
Parton, 79, was unable to attend a Dollywood event in person in September because she’d “had a little problem,” she explained at the time. A kidney stone had “given me an infection. …Don’t worry about me. I’m gonna be OK.” Soon after the missed Dollywood event, Parton announced she would postpone her Las Vegas residency to next year because of “some health challenges.” Parton’s sister, Freida Parton, 68, asked others to join her in praying for the country star. She clarified that she hadn’t intended “to scare anyone” when concerns grew about the Country Music Hall of Fame member’s health.
PEOPLE featured the beloved country legend in this week’s cover story. The publication cited “a source close to Parton” in a health update shared on Wednesday morning (November 12). The unnamed source said “Dolly is getting better every day. She is at home taking care of herself while many friends and family visit her.
“In true Dolly spirit she has already started decorating for the holidays — her favorite time of year,” the source added to PEOPLE.
Parton said when she addressed health rumors last month that she “didn’t take care of myself” after she lost her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean, in March. He was 82. Parton said her “health challengers” were “nothing major, but I did have to cancel some things so I could be closer to home…But I wanted you to know that I’m not dying,” she said. “There’s just a lot of rumors flying around, but I figured if you heard it from me, you’d know that I was OK.”
Parton — who released Star of the Show: My Life on Stage, a book that serves as the final installment of a trilogy, on Tuesday (November 11) — looked ahead to her 80th birthday while catching up with PEOPLE. She’ll turn 80 on January 19. Parton said she feels “like I’m just getting started. I know that sounds stupid, but unless my health gives way, which right now I seem to be doing fine…I think there’s a lot to be said about age,” she told PEOPLE. “If you allow yourself to get old, you will. I say, ‘I ain’t got time to get old!’ I ain’t got time to dwell on that. That’s not what I’m thinking about.”