There’s nothing else I can write about tonight. I can’t stop thinking about her.
It makes so little sense….and so much sorrow.
It reminds me of the opening line from Love Story: “What can you say about a 25 year old girl who died?” Natasha Richardson was 45, but it doesn’t change the point—what can you say?
It’s a reminder of another beautiful British patrician princess from a famous dynasty,who also left behind two young sons and the shock of her senseless and sudden death.
It’s a reminder of the life-imitates-art scenes from the movie Love Actually–in which Liam Neeson plays a widower negotiating parenthood alone.
It’s a reminder of the irony that someone with so many gifts in life, may be best remembered for her death.
It’s a reminder that motherless children, like Prince William, never really get over the magnitude of their loss.
It’s a reminder that pain may become duller, but even deeper over the years.
It’s a reminder of my mother—who I see even now when I look at Natasha’s face.
It’s a reminder of my brother—the same age as Natasha’s older son when our mother died.
It’s a reminder of my father– who could never fill the hole left in his life, and in ours.
It’s a reminder of how fragile life truly is; that we all dangle by a thread.
Most of all it’s a reminder that all we have is this day—and each other.
Mark Geduldig-Yatrofsky says
A shame, indeed, but not a tragedy, like that of the 23-year-old widow whose husband died in the service of our country in a war that did not have to be fought. Ms. Richardson chose to be on those slopes and assume the risks inherent in that sport. Sadly, this downhill run turned out badly for her, her family and friends, and countless fans of her work (including myself). The positive aspect of this is that she, indeed, died while she was living rather than lived while dead.
Darryle Pollack says
I’m pasting here something I just read that makes her death even more poignant.
She once said that Neeson’s serious injury in a 2000 motorcycle accident — he suffered a crushed pelvis after colliding with a deer in upstate New York — had made her really appreciate life.
“I wake up every morning feeling lucky — which is driven by fear, no doubt, since I know it could all go away,” she told The Daily Telegraph newspaper in 2003.
Ellyn says
Another life imitates art reminder is the play, A Year of Magical Thinking, based on the book of the same name, in which Joan Didion writes about the death of her husband. The play, however, goes beyond the book and includes the death of Joan Didion’s daughter, who died after the book was written but before the play. Joan Didion’s daughter also died too young and from something that at first seemed like a harmless virus. The very sad irony is that Vanessa Redgrave played the part of Joan Didion.
Darryle Pollack says
i read the book but didn’t see the play. Thank you for pointing it out. I agree it adds to the eerie feeling and poignancy of this terribly sad story.