We play this game in our house, being the internet/media freaks that we are. It's called 'Guess who's dead'. It's a case of going about your daily lives until you hear/read the news that a celebrity has kicked the proverbial bucket. We then jump up and head for the nearest family member shouting 'Guess who's dead' in a Peter Kay impression. (You'd have to be a Peter Kay fan to know the reason, Connie, Connie). Even if they are asleep, we wake them up.
Usually I get beaten if the son names the person which he usually does because he turns his laptop on as soon as he wakes up. Although I tend to win on the obscure ones....
However I won't be playing that today, I have heard today that Patrick Swayze has danced his way off the mortal coil. I'm actually quite sad. Not in a crying or sobbing way and no, I won't be sending flowers. But sad at the loss of a man that came across as a gentle soul and true gent.
I first saw him in Red Dawn, that was pants, but after that it was Dirty Dancing. It came out in the year that my daughter was born and I really liked it. I'm usually a horror or crime fan but this one had my toes tapping. We used to laugh at 'Johnny' walking away from Baby's dad, in his cuban heels it looked like he had pooped his pants. That naff naff line we all know and love, made us roar out loud.
But it was a great film and when my younger sister (she's 17 years younger than me and there are a couple of brothers in between) discovered a video of it on the shelf at my mum's when she was 5 or 6, a true love affair blossomed.
My sister fell in love with Patrick Swayze, as she grew up I watched her turn into a beautiful and smart young woman. She isn't perfect, is anyone? but she has a beauty and a strength of character that I don't even think she realises she has. I think she always harboured a belief that she would bump into Patrick one day and knock him off his feet (not literally) and he would leave his wife for her. LOL. Bless her.
She went through a long labour with her little boy while listening to the soundtrack of Dirty Dancing and the little fella actually popped out to the strains of 'She's like the wind'...LOL. Her other half drew the line at her giving him the name Patrick.
Patrick Swayze was a man who fought his illness with a determination, who was married to the same woman for 34 years and who behaved with dignity. There were never any scandalous stories, he didn't run off to Africa to adopt when he found that he and his wife couldn't get the baby they so desperately wanted, nor did he bugger off and find someone else who could give him a baby. A rarity if ever there was one.
I think, no I know, my sister will be shedding a few tears today, I don't think she will be alone.
Have a lovely day and remember to tell the ones you love, how much they mean to you xxx
