Oh They Dead Vs. I Can't Believe They're Gone.

[par4dcourse]

You know the feeling; ex-presidents, movie stars, distant relatives, even closer people. After x amount of time you get beyond shock that they're gone and pretty much accept it. I was devastated to lose my niece a year and a half ago, but I'm comfortably in the "she's gone" stage.

Which brings me to my question: who are you still stuck in the "can't believe" stage with? My personal albatross is Doug Marlette.

Doug was born in Greensboro NC and was political cartoonist for the Charlotte Observer 1972-1987. I met him twice. First as a TV man repairing the newly developed big screen tv's. When I finished, I shook his hand and told him I admired his work. He glanced at his tv and replied, "and I a fan or yours." I later repaired his computer, again just as home computers were emerging in the marketplace. He loved gadgets and we became phone friends, although not drinking buddies.

Doug died in a car accident in a former residence town in MS in July 2007. I still got him in my "can't believe he's gone" file.

[white_raven23]

I have a couple.

 

1. Vincent Price - I loved horror movies from an early age. His voice alone resonated with my love of the macabre. He died years ago...I still haven't been able to resign him as "gone".

 

2. Majel Barrett Roddenberry - Much more recent... but Number One, Christine Chapel, Lwuxana Troi, and various onboard computer system voices.....gone? NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

[Dhampir]

Hmm.... Bernie Mac.

[par4dcourse]

Hmm.... Bernie Mac.

Yeah, now that I think about it , Carlin is still in that category.

[Skeptic]

Mr. Rogers, even though he was a Presbyterian minister.

[florduh]

The Grumpy Old Men - Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.

 

 

“I’m number 10 at the box office. Right under Barbara Streisand. Can you imagine being under Barbara Streisand? Give me a bag, I may throw up.”

- Quote from Walter Matthau

[Creepy Doll]

Peter Boyle. His deadpan delivery was just killer (no pun intended). I still love watching Raymond reruns sometimes. I never thought any family could really be as petty and dysfunctional as mine. Only on TV

[Deva]

John Lennon and George Harrison - yeah its been awhile but its still surreal to me when I think only half the Beatles are still alive -

 

Another one was Robert Palmer. Those of you who watched MTV in the 80s - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0U5JfGYx4c

 

He died in 2003 at age 54 and I am like :wtf:

[Kathlene]

Par4dcourse....Doug Marlette wrote a beautiful novel as well. I am always on the look out to find another novel of his, and now I know why there isn't. I hadn't realised he had died. What a shame.

 

I loved Robert Palmer too...I can't believe he died at such a young age!!

There are still moments when I miss my Pop(grandfather). He was the most influential loving male in my life growing up. He died when I was 15. I still can't believe he is gone. He was from Louisiana and I have a real soft spot for when I hear American accents to this day.

[Amethyst]

I just lost my cousin due to a stroke. She was only 46. I'm still in the "can't believe" stage. I mean intellectually I know she's gone, but it was one of those totally unexpected things.

[Deva]

That's dreadful Amethyst, I am so sorry to hear it.

[godlessgrrl]

I'm sorry Amethyst.

 

Jim Henson and my grandmother are in the "I can't believe they're gone" for me.

 

Oddly enough, so are the old WTC towers.

[pitchu]

Senator Paul Wellstone.

[Vigile]

Senator Paul Wellstone.

 

I met him once when doing an internship for a progressive group in DC. He was really a great guy.

 

My tin foil hat still tingles a bit over this one.

[♦ nivek ♦]

Anwar Sadat

 

kL

[☆ TexasFreethinker ☆]

My best friend Mike died of AIDS in 1991 and I still can't believe he's gone. I still find myself thinking "I wish Mike could see that" when something wickedly funny happens.

[pitchu]

Senator Paul Wellstone.

 

I met him once when doing an internship for a progressive group in DC. He was really a great guy.

 

My tin foil hat still tingles a bit over this one.

 

Ooooh, mine too, Vigile, mine too!

 

Maybe it's the lack of investigation into that plane crash that makes it so hard for me to close the book and accept his death.

 

I wish I could have met him.

[Vigile]

I guess my best friend Anna would fit into this category. She died of a brain tumor a few years ago.

 

I never met anyone like her. We had such a strong connection from the first day we met. We would constantly get in heated debates but neither of us were ever angry, just passionate. We both noticed that we would argue our points and not give an inch during the debate but that after we had time to sit down and reflect I would move in her direction and she in mine, sometimes even switching positions.

 

When we met she didn't speak more than a couple of words of English. She was my roommate in Italy. I arrived on Friday and all the other roommates were gone for the weekend so Anna and I struggled to communicate with an English/Italian dictionary. This will sound unbelievable, but I swear it's true. By Sunday we were debating Nietzsche in English. She was fluent in French and had studied Latin and Greek for 5 years so she had a good language foundation, but it still blows my mind.

 

The world is a sadder place without her and I miss her nearly every day.

[chefranden]

The Grumpy Old Men - Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.

 

 

“I’m number 10 at the box office. Right under Barbara Streisand. Can you imagine being under Barbara Streisand? Give me a bag, I may throw up.”

- Quote from Walter Matthau

 

I can imagine. In my youth that's one place I wanted to be.

[Skeptic]

I just found out that someone I went to high school with died a month ago. She was incredibly intelligent. She was attending Harvard and was planning to attend medical school after graduation, and now she's dead. All of that intelligence and potential gone. I'm not even grieving, because I barely knew her, it's just a fucking travesty that someone who could have changed the world in a very meaningful way is now dead. This is just further evidence, in my mind, that god does not exist.

[PaulQ]

For famous people, I often catch myself forgetting that Douglas Adams and Carl Sagan have both died. George Carlin as well, but to a much lesser degree.

 

In my personal life, I had a cousin who committed suicide nearly a decade ago. He was a couple of years older than me. It's difficult for me to believe that he was such a positive influence on my life, encouraging me to do better and stay in school, even as his life was pretty messed up. My wife and I had just moved into our second house (an actual bungalow house; our first was a townhouse), and she just gave birth to our first-born, my son. My cousin came over to visit with his son (he had a son and a daughter). I wanted him to be proud of what I had accomplished, and I think he was. His life was pretty messed up, and I wanted oh so badly to help him; but he always seemed just out of reach. He was the older cousin that used to give me advice on life when we were kids, and our lives became so different as adults. I worked in an office on the 11th floor wearing a shirt and tie; he was leather jacket, torn jeans, long hair, beard, and doing whatever odd job he could find. He was lean, ropey and muscular; I was putting on some weight and a bit soft in contrast. He was "Cool," I was "Dorky," but he always made me feel accepted. I saw him give up his dream of rebuilding a gold Firebird, and he drove an Olds 442; while I was more of an "Economy car" type of guy. I loved him dearly, and I cried for a week after I found out what he had done. I'm still sad when I think about him today.

 

Like TexasFreethinker, I often think to myself, "I wish Dave could have seen that" whenever I see something really cool.

[Ramen666]

This one kid I went to high school with we where more of an acquaintance than anything but his death shocked the hell out of me and what caused my long absence from this board for a while because I just didn't know how to feel and Steve Irwin.