They were too young to die

They were often referred to as “gone too soon,” celebrities who die at the prime of their life. The special-edition magazine called Too Young To Die, published by The Media Source, features celebrities whose sudden death, noted the introduction/editorial, “sends many of us into such a profound state of mourning, it’s almost as if we’d lost a close friend or neighbor,” adding, “we grieve over the death and feel empathy for the family. We splatter RIPs across Facebook and Twitter, expressing our heartache for all to see. It’s a strange phenomenon, this deep sorrow we feel for someone we’ve never met.”

Here are some of those featured, those who succumbed to drug overdose, those who were killed and those who died in tragic incidents:

= Cory Monteith, May 11, 1982-July 13, 2013.

The star of Glee was found dead (from a drug overdose) at a room of a hotel in Vancouver, where he came from, a few months after he completed a drug-rehab program.

= Brittany Murphy, Nov. 10, 1977-Dec. 20, 2009.

The star of Clueless; Girl, Interrupted; and King of the Hill was found dead in the shower of the Hollywood Hills home she shared with her husband. Mystery surrounded her death, with theories varying from drug overdose to anorexia, pneumonia to murder, but the coronel’s report claimed that the cause was “pneumonia, anemia and prescription drug intoxication.”

= Brad Renfro, July 25, 1982-Jan. 15, 2008.

The star of The Client, Tom and Huck and Sleepers was found dead in a friend’s house due, as confirmed by the Los Angeles County Coroner, to an accidental overdose of heroin.

= Whitney Houston, Aug. 9, 1963-Feb. 11, 2012.

On the eve of the 2012 Grammy Awards where she was supposed to perform, Houston was found dead of “accidental overdose” at the bathtub of her room at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills.

= Amy Winehouse, Sept. 14, 1983-July 23, 2011.

The singer-songwriter of such hits as Frank, Back to Black, Rehab and Body and Soul was reported to have a relapse after a rehab just a month before she was found by her bodyguard in bed dead of “apparent overdose.”

= James Dean, Feb. 8, 1931-Sept. 30, 1955.

A professional car racer, the star of Rebel Without a Cause, Giant and East of Eden died on the spot when his Porsche 550 Spyder was involved in a head-on collision on US Route 466 near Salinas, California.

= Paul Walker, Sept. 12, 1973-Nov. 30, 2013.

The star of Fast & Furious died the way his fans knew him from his screen roles --- fast and furious, in a fiery car crash in Santa Clara, California, after attending a charity event for Reach Out Worldwide, an organization which he founded,  that helped disaster victims (including Yolanda victims in the Philippines).

= John F. Kennedy Jr., Nov. 25, 1960-July 16, 1999.

Said to be a victim of “the Kennedy Curse,” JFK Jr. and his wife Carolyn (with her sister Lauren) were on their way to Hyannis Port to attend a cousin’s wedding when the private plane he was piloting went down off Cape Cod.

= Sal Mineo, Jan. 10, 1939-Feb. 12, 1976.

The star of, among other films, Rebel Without a Cause (with Dean), was killed while parking his car in the garage of his West Hollywood home. It was only after two years when the killer, a pizza deliveryman, was convicted.

= Selena, April 16, 1971-March 31, 1995.

The so-called Queen of Tejano Music was killed by a fan-turned-business partner (sentenced to life imprisonment). She was portrayed in an eponymous telemovie by then-newcomer Jennifer Lopez.

= Natalie Wood, July 20, 1938-Nov. 29, 1981.

The star of Splendor in the Grass and West Side Story (also Mineo and Dean’s co-star on Rebel Without a Cause) was reported to have “accidentally drowned” while she and her husband Robert Wagner, with friend Christopher Walken, were sailing on Wagner’s yacht Splendour to Catalina Island in California.

= Natasha Richardson, May 11, 1963-March 18, 2009.

While skiing with her family in Canada, Richardson sustained bumps on her head when she fell several times during a skiing lesson. The wife of Liam Neeson, who wasn’t wearing a helmet, didn’t mind her injuries that eventually caused her death (epidural hematoma).

A love poem

for Mama

I dug up this interesting letter dated Oct. 30, 2012, from an old file. It has a timely message in this Lenten Season, sent by reader Joe Jardin who recalled his mother singing with him some of the love and Christian songs that he had composed while his mother was bedridden with a terminal illness.

Jardin said that he composed a song “for a mother by giving music and adding some lines” to a poem written by his officemate Bert Moneva at Landbank (hope they’re still working there). “Actually,” added Jardin, “I was inspired by a poem titled Dear Mother that came out in Funfare. I miss my mother so much that I keep reminding my friends to say ‘I love you!’ to their moms now and not when they’re not around to appreciate it.”

Jardin is dedicating the poem to “all who love their mothers, gone or still living.”

Lullaby For Mama

By Joe Jardin and Bert Moneva

When was the last time

You sang your song to me

When was the last time

I heard you even say

That the song soothes the heart

And eases all the pains

When was that, when was that

You taught me that the song

If it’s coming from the heart

Will surely go a long long way

Will give me peace love and joy

No matter what, no matter what

Chorus

I sing to you my song

I know it soothes your heart

I know it gives you warmth I’m sure

It eases all your pains

Because this song is from my heart

Thank you for your song

Which eased my pains

Which warmed my heart

Thank you for singing

Me your song Mama