Betty White's gone as of today at 99... https://www.tmz.com/2021/12/31/betty-white-dead-dies-golden-girls/
David Bowie escaped ten days into 2016, the year the world ended. Betty's departure is a bad omen, I fear.
The world ended in 2016? (Checks immediate vicinity. Nope, everything here appears more or less intact.)
When someone makes it into their nineties, I don't see it as a tragedy anymore when they inevitably pass. Betty had nothing left to accomplish, really, and she had a most interesting and productive life. Her work had a positive impact on many millions. Good for her. Celebrate her life more than mourn her loss.
As my team was leaving work yesterday to celebrate the new year we were discussing how 2021 was probably even worse than 2020 and I casually remarked 'at least Betty White didn't die...' (based on the various celebrity deaths in 2020 and saying that Betty White better not be taken too...) So yeah... not a good start.
CBC did a great article on her. I especially liked that clip from 1966. https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/betty-white-obituary-1.6301527
I was, and still am, fanatical about Band of Brothers. Although Ed Shames has passed, he was not the last surviving member of Easy Company. He was the last surviving officer and the last of the company to have been represented with a speaking role of Band of Brothers. The last surviving member of Easy Company is Bradford Freeman who had a non-speaking role during the course of the show. Sorry to nitpick but I've seen that information wrongly reposted a lot since Mr Shames passing.
Me and a friend often play ‘Dead or alive?’, in which we name a long-forgotten actor/celebrity before guessing their breathing status, then we ask Siri to confirm one way or the other.
What becomes frightening is some of these folks are not much older than I am. Bob Saget is only two years older than I am. My oldest daughter went to school with one of Bob Sagets kids. Away from the 'celebrity' life he was just another husband/father like the rest of us, but a really nice guy the few times we chatted for a moment. Excuse me if this was already posted: It gets more and more depressing every year, as I 'grew up' with a lot of these people; it's like losing distant relatives.
I'm at the age where I look at the obituaries in our local paper from time to time. If less than half of the people are my age or younger, I figure that I'm ahead of the game.
