I don't often tear up at the death of a public figure. Not even at their untimely death. Public figures are larger than life, and when they die, their largess continues to fuel the lives they left behind.
A few years back, I learned of a co-worker's death several days after it occurred. He was on a job site in Ireland and collapsed and died of a sudden massive heart attack. He had been a good friend in what were hard times for me. And my daughter, Brandy, loved him dearly. So when I learned, in an almost casual fashion, that he had died, I was stunned and hurt, and I came very close to tears in a public forum.
The announcement today of Tim Russert's death (as I learned of it while at work listening on headphones to Randi Rhodes) elicited a similar response from me. I'm not sure why. I didn't know Tim. My daughter wasn't his buddy. But it somehow felt the same way.
And it's not just because Tim was a recurrent guest in our living room, on our television. There are many such guests (though mostly they are of the serious sort - more or less - not frivolous celebrities).
Maybe it's because on Sunday mornings, Bonnie watches Meet the Press almost religiously (rather than attending a church service), and I (like the prodigal husband amid the church-going), occasionally sit in as well, and watch and listen to Tim as he serves up his brand of confession.
Maybe that's why I equate his loss with my friend's. Or maybe it's that both were Irish Catholic, and I the great atheist, still find an affinity with Irish Catholics. Don't ask me why.
I will miss you Tim. Bonnie will miss you as well. And to my modest surprise, Brandy knew you too, and she will also miss you.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Tim Russert, Dead at 58 - the End of an Era
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I rolled in about 1:30AM and my phone was ringing. My good friend Chow who I had just dropped off at her home was calling me to make sure I got home ok - and then she told me Tim Russert had died. I told her she was full of crap and she told me to turn on the TV. I was absolutely stunned. I don't know why I was so touched by the news. I don't know him personally - BUT like so many others I have spent every Sunday morning for most of my adult life with him. I have my Tivo set to record MTP in the event that I sleep late. It occured to me that I didn't know much about him as a person so I spent most of the day today watching the special programing on MSNBC. The more I learned about him, the sadder I became. He was really a very remarkable yet very ordinary man. Very loved and admired. We should all be so blessed. I will miss him as well and feel a profound sense of sadness that the bright light that was Tim Russert --- is no more.
Odd, isn't it? That sense of familiarity?
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