Far be from me to say that the King of Pop could of pulled a fast one on all of us. Just look back to when Elvis died. Seems like every other week the Enquirer was running a story showing Elvis in a casino in Vegas or Elvis at the Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich Convention in Dallas, Texas.
Deep down it all comes down to the fact that people just can't seem to say goodbye.
Now I'm old enough to remember when Elvis died but I was never really much of a fan. I did enjoy some of his music but I wasn't one of the mourners the day his casket was taken to Graceland. I remember them showing it on the nightly news. They showed about a 20 second clip and that was it.
When Michael Jackson died it was a completely different story. I grew up on his music. I went to see the Jackson 5 at the Boston Garden when I was 9 years old and when Thriller hit I was transfixed by the man(or boy or whatever). I was cleaning my house when for some unknown reason I had CNN on and I heard the first reports that he was taken to the hospital in a coma.
I worked in an ER for 7 years so I knew that was bad news. People don't just go to the hospital in a coma, something has to put them in that position be it a stroke or head injury or cardiac arrest. When they finally announced he died I felt as if a member of my family had died, it was that powerful. Now I'm a 47 year old white male, married with 2 kids(grown) and I can honestly say I got kind of choked up when realization hit. As the days went on all I could seem to do was watch CNN or any channel that was talking about it. I was a little more than into it.
So what happens to us when we lose someone close? Remember losing a beloved pet? I do, more times than I'd like to remember. And what usually happened when you were a kid and you lost a pet? Mom or Dad would go out and get us another one and over time our hurt wouldn't hurt as much.
Saying goodbye to someone or something is a part of everyone's life so it's only natural that a celebrity death here and there got to effect some of us, right? The fact's are Michael Jackson died back in June 2009 but the difference between him and say Uncle Pat is we've got ton's and ton's of ways to remember him through his music. All we have of Uncle Pat is him holding up the beer to toast the camera that long ago Christmas Day and that's the shame of all of this.
