Goodbye Natasha

I am always sadden with the death of someone so young and so beautiful as with the death of Natasha Richardson. It was shocking news and as always reminds me of how life is so fragile and precious. How one minute you're alive and then in the next you could be dead. How when you leave in the morning, maybe never to return. I was shocked when Princess Diana died and how she left her two boys. But what made Natasha's death even more shocking was the fact that she was just having some fun learning how to ski. She's wasn't being pursued by the paparazzi, she wasn't driving in a too fast car, she was just relaxing and enjoying herself. I remembered the time we went to Knotts Berry Farm, I went on a ride with my sister-in-law, while my daughter and husband stayed at the bottom, my daughter being too small to ride the Plunge. How terrifying could it be, it was after all just a hyped up water ride right? Wrong! As the roller coaster car chugged it's way up the track, it paused at the very top. It was then the horrifying thought came to me, that I could be thrown out of the car and plummet to my death. All I could think of was my family. What would become of them after I died senselessly on some thrill ride at an amusement park. How would my daughter survive without her mother? As the car started it's descent, riders were turned literally facing down and out at a 90 degree pitch, head first, keys flying out, cameras dropping, hats flying. I held on to my sister-in-law for dear life. She is solid weight after all and with my 100 pounds of bone I was hoping she wouldn't fall out of the car. The roller coaster plunged at 100 miles an hour, no time to scream, a quick prayer to Mother Mary, eyes shut, breath held, when mercifully the car splashes in the water, riders turned upright. All I could hear was the sound of water, all I could feel was my clothes getting wet as we sail through what was like a tunnel wave and it was then that I felt enormous gratitude for having survived. It was then on that hot summer day, I told myself, I would never do anything that stupid again, it just wasn't worth the price. And so, when I heard that Natasha Richardson had been in a skiing accident, I had hoped for her recovery. She had always been my favorite since her role in the remake of the "Parent Trap" with the then innocent Lindsey Lohan and Dennis Quaid. How I thought she was so naturally pretty and how in real life, she had lead such a charmed life. But when the news came that she had died, I thought of her boys and of their loss of a mother too young and too beautiful to die. Goodbye Natasha, a light extinguished much too soon!-Single D