Contrary to what we normally think, this is a big planet with lots of people (okay, billions of people). And everyday, millions of us die. While we all hope to die in our bed surrounded by love ones, sadly the truth is most of us will not. Death does not honor our wishes and will claim us while we are in the shower, making breakfast, walking down the street, after exercising, during sex (solo or with a partner) or just when it is otherwise plain inconvenient. Death is not proud, but dang, it should cut us a little slack.
When I was growing up, there was a saying about famous people dying in groups of three. Forget group and think clusters. Of the 318 famous people Wikipedia listed as dying during June 2009, the deaths of the following people really surprised me:
Mollie Sugden (Mrs. Slocombe in Are You Being Served?)
Alexis Argüello (one of the world’s best boxers in his prime)
Michael Jackson
Farrah Fawcett
Billy Mays
Gale Storm (Honestly? I thought she died in the ‘90s)
Ed McMahon (he didn’t look 86 when he was on the Super Bowl commercial with M. C. Hammer)
Lorena Gale
Harve Presnell (Sam Lane on Lois and Clark)
David Carradine
Dave Simmons (knew of him from his work on Courage the Cowardly Dog)
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The entire June death list is here.