Natasha Richardson

Natasha Richardson died today after a fall on a ski slope yesterday. I always have trouble when actors and actresses die...it's as if I almost can't believe it because, well, they're actors. That's what they do. It makes the word "die" seem heavier, seem like it's more real for the fact that it really can happen to anyone.

For whatever reason, maybe the suddenness of it?, I'm having trouble with Richardson's death. I have no idea why. I couldn't have told you a single movie she was in if you'd asked me a week ago, nor did I know as general knowledge that she'd won a Tony. She was low on my radar. But, I think it 's the idea that she was fine, and now she's dead. The doctors call it "talk and die syndrome"-- where delayed bleeding between the skull and the brain stem causes death but doesn't show immediate symptoms after the injury. The idea that you could be going about your business and dying with each passing minute is frightening.

Of course, I guess we're all doing that right now, aren't we? It's an unsettling thought.