Heidi Gutman/ABC.

This is fantastic news. On Thursday, Whoopi Goldberg made a surprise return to The View after missing episodes for more than a month due to severe illness. According to Entertainment Tonight, the show began as it has for the last several weeks, with Goldberg’s cohost Joy Behar opening the show and wishing her well in her recovery. Then, Goldberg snuck up behind her cohosts, including Behar, Abby Huntsman, Meghan McCain, Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro, startling them all out of their seats.

Goldberg got tearful hugs from the other women of The View while the crowd chanted her first name over and over again. When the chant died down, Goldberg admitted, “This is my first foray out… I’m not there yet, but the only way it’s going to get better is if I begin, so this is my beginning.” She also joked that “makeup helps” with looking more lively.

Although Goldberg reclaimed her spot on the show on Thursday’s episode, she told her cohosts and the audience that she won’t be back fully for a little while. She revealed that she still has a lingering cough from a life-threatening case of pneumonia and said she plans to return to the show gradually over the next week and a half.

“I wanted the first foray to be to come see y’all because I really kinda missed y’all,” Goldberg told her cohosts.

In addition to cracking jokes, as is her way, Goldberg also got serious about how she had to be her own medical advocate when she was being treated for pneumonia and sepsis, a dangerous bacterial infection.

“One of the things that I discovered, and I’m sure many people already know this, is that your insurance doesn’t do much for you,” she explained. She said that during her hospital stay, in particular, she began questioning where her insurance payments have gone for the last several decades. Things came to a head when her doctor wanted her to use a particular machine for her breathing problems, but it wasn’t what her insurance recommended.

“These are things that we have the power to take care of,” Goldberg said. “This is us. Tell me where you’re putting my money. […] Sixty years of insurance and you’re telling me I can’t have this machine?”

It seems that Goldberg is truly getting back to her old self, which is encouraging to see. We can’t wait until she is back on The View full time, right where she should be.