This week, both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson passed away. Both deaths made me sad. I’d read several articles about Fawcett’s fight with cancer that shook me – remember that iconic poster of her in the red swimsuit, laughing? It was hard to believe that she could be sick – or in her sixties. It seems to me as if she was cheated, as if life didn’t play out to expectations or fulfill the promise of the gifts she had. I supposed her death was a relief for those who knew her, as it would end her suffering, but I thought she was awfully young. Sad stuff.Michael Jackson died suddenly, although certainly he had faced his own challenges in recent years. Again, there’s the sense of someone who had so much going for him, but then everything fell apart in his hands. When I was a kid, he was this cute little squirt in the Jackson Five, just an irrepressible charming little boy. Again, he was young – to die at 50 is to only get to play half the game, IMO. I find it particularly troubling when really talented people die early. This world needs all the creative energy it can get.
So, today, I’m a bit blue.
What do you think when famous people die? How do you feel?
Deborah Cooke: Author 
2 responses to “Famous People”
In my family – we look for celebrities to die in threes. This week it was Ed McMahon, Farrah, and Michael. It’s eerie how often it does come true.
Besides Farrah and Michael being so young, it also brings the ghost of mortality to our own doors. It could happen to any of us, at any time, too.
Blech. Time for more ice cream.
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My friend Beth Anne used to have a HUGE crush on Michael Jackson when we were teens. (I was a Davy Jones gal.) I lost Beth Anne several years ago, to cancer, and my first silly thought was sorta sad, sorta happy, imagining how excited she would be to be hanging out with him now.
I think celebrities become a part of our lives, however peripheral as we go through our own struggles. I always feel a pang when someone I’ve known in that way is gone.
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