Several famous people have died in the last seven days: Terri Schiavo, Pope John Paul II, Johnny Cochran, Prince Ranier, Saul Bellow. They came from different walks of life and their public personas impacted us in different ways. But now they are all gone.
On the basis of world influence, I imagine Pope John Paul II would claim first place among the recently deceased. He was the leader of the Roman Catholic Church for twenty-six years. And while Prince Ranier governed his tiny municipality of Monaco for over fifty years, his influence was less far-flung. Ranier changed a country; John Paul attempted to change the world.
Both men will have successors who will be hard-put to step from the shadow of their forebearers. We already know Prince Albert of Monaco will accede to that throne, but who will become the next Pope won’t be revealed quite yet. Both men will have elaborate state funerals, although dignitaries will probably attend John Paul’s funeral over Ranier’s.
As for Cochran, I heard a blurb on the news today that five thousand people, including some of Hollywood’s infamous, attended his funeral. That’s a third of the population of the town where I live. It’s an amazing send-off for O.J. Simpson’s defense attorney.
Not through any will of her own, Terri Schiavo still created dissention in death that she did in life. Her husband, now her widower, and her parents continued to argue over her remains, her burial place, etc. In this case, I’ve lost patience with the survivors.
And then there’s Saul Bellow, that man of letters who won literary prize after literary prize. In truth, I’ve never read anything by him, but of all the famous people who passed away this week, his is the legacy I’m most interested in learning more about.
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