Friday 3 January 2020
RIP's of 2019.
For me personally, the most important death of 2019 was that of my dog Bok, and I make no apology in mentioning him yet again
I have no idea if he'd been in pain or discomfort, but he showed no sign of either. On the morning of the day he died, he had wet his bedding, and I remember him looking at me as if to ask forgiveness; of course I'd happily let him wet his bed every day if he'd come back to me. RIP my lovely Bok.
My annual list can never be complete, but throughout the year I do note down the names of certain passings that grab my attention. Here are a few of those who left us this last year.
Actors Doris Day, Albert Finney, William Simons (Ventress), and Freddie Jones,
Luminaries Jonathan Miller, Clive James, David Bellamy, and Brian Walden.
Musicians Ginger Baker, and Keith Flint.
Also worthy of note are chef Gary Rhodes, annoying pundit John McCririck, car driver Niki Lauda, and politician Jacques Chirac.
I would also like to remember the tragic London Bridge killings of Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt. Two deaths that should have been avoided.
Finally, from my favourite Cricket era (the early 80's) we say goodbye to England captain Bob Willis.
All deaths are important, but we tend only to notice the 'celebs'. So, RIP to all those who departed this last year, whoever they were.
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Those without pets have no idea how hard it is for us who love ours and lose them. Our dogs, cats and other animals are our companions and their lives are never long enough.
ReplyDeleteSo true. Dogs especially become family members, and are missed in the same way.
Delete2020 is the first year of my life without pets, in 2019 I lost a dog and two cats.
ReplyDeleteI said that I'd never have another dog, but then my son turned-up with little Billy!
DeleteThe only pet I've ever had as an adult was not mine but one that had been abandoned to me and adopted me. He was a large cat called BP which stood for Big Puss because no one could remember his proper name. He was about 16 and fit and a fiddle until a couple of days before my first New Zealand visit. He developed kidney trouble and died in my arms (at the vet's) a few days later. I'm not a pet person but that moment still makes me well up.
ReplyDeleteOur last cat, Freddie, died in his sleep in front of the fire. When I went to bed that night I knew that I'd find him dead in the morning. Although it was very sad, he knew that his time had come.
DeleteI shall miss Clive James.
ReplyDeleteHe always reminded me of my friend Jock Veitch; they were from the same mold.
DeleteI hope to be watching BBC2 tomorrow evening.
DeleteThe BBC news channel usually makes a "We Remember" programme of photographs and clips of those lost during the year. Still on the iplayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000cwch/review-2019-4-we-remember
ReplyDeleteThey seem to have most of mine! I hope you weren't trying to suggest that my list was inferior to Aunty's?
DeleteNot at all and I do apologise that I could have given such an impression. But theirs does have photographs, video clips and music.
DeleteI only said that in jeste!!
DeleteI feel very sad when I think of the deaths by fire of the gorillas, orangutans, and other occupants of the monkey house in the New Year’s Eve Berlin Zoo fire.
ReplyDeleteMany koala bears have been killed in the fires raging in Oz. An Austrian who lives in the area described this morning how quickly the flames spread in the eucalyptus. In one area thousands of people being rescued by the Australian navy - no other way to get out.
ReplyDeleteDreadful; it's all too awful to think about. It'll take them years to get back to some sort of normality; much of the wild life never will.
DeleteAustralian bush fires - dreadful, too dreadful to contemplate really.
ReplyDeleteDeaths - when they are timely and of old age after a good life then one can remember them with admiration and affection.
It is the untimely ones that hurt - like the London Bridge killings.
Losing one's dog is hard - I have lost a few and it hurts. I wonder Cro when you say about him wetting his bed. My friend lost her dog through a similar circumstance - but it was in the middle of the day and she just began to have a constant dribble. When taken to the vet he diagnosed a twisted gut or something, said it was not uncommon and not curable.
I think in Bok's case his tumour had become so big (we simply thought he'd put on weight) that it had begun to attack all his other vital organs and 'mechanisms'. Without any external symptoms, his whole body was beginning to collapse.
DeleteHow quickly I have forgotten Doris Day died. I never heard of the deaths of Jonathan Miller, David Bellamy, Niki Lauda and Jacques Chirac. Good that you have some footage of Bok.
ReplyDeleteI always make a note in my online diary of certain people's deaths, otherwise I would soon forget them too.
DeleteI didn't realise that Gary Rhodes had died.
ReplyDeleteHe'd had a head injury in his youth (I think), and had been told that another similar injury could well kill him. I believe he fell over somewhere, and it did!
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