George Michael - had been a fan for many years and seen him live and devoured any information, books, articles about him over the years. And the timing didn't help awful thing to happen at Christmas, his poor family - who all credit to them continued to post on his website and social media about how much the fans condolences meant to them and things they were doing to honour him. That they did this at what must have been such an incredibly difficult time for them is amazing.
Princess Diana - I'm no royalist far from it, but being a 70's/80's child she'd been a huge figure in my consciousness and I remembered having a street party when she married Charles and her having her sons. Also I think partly as it was such shocking circumstances - to the point when I first heard the news I thought it was a hoax! Plus of course it was affecting many others and that has a knock on effect in itself. I was home off work day of the funeral and found myself watching and William and Harry just seemed so very young. But even so I didn't cry until the news was on and they showed the part of this clip
m.youtube.com/watch?v=G9cW9ntrtoI
Where she hugs her boys - that did it for me I was gone! Still gets to me now.
Freddie Mercury - I was nursing my first HIV+ patient. His parents had cut him off as a result and he had only one person a friend who was visiting him, even though he was at this point suffering from AIDS particularly pneumonia. It was the effect it had on him that shook me tbh I think it had just hit him he was dying. Awful.
Sue grafton - had been a fan for many years and it was so sad she never got to complete the alphabet series. She was very engaged with her fans and just lovely.
More recently - but because I only recently became aware of the actor and that he has died - which sounds a bit odd I know. I'm also a fan of Tess geritsen and have recently been able to watch rizzoli & Isles sadly lee Thompson Young who played Barry frost on it took his own life. He suffered from bipolar disorder and died during a filming period. The programme makers handled it as best as possible I think. Apparently hit those he worked with quite hard. His family continue to campaign to get better awareness and support for the mentally ill.
Robin Williams - had been a fan since mork & Mindy days and again the manner of his death was very upsetting and I think many of us that suffer from mental illness find suicides in particular hard to deal with as we have maybe felt too close to similar ourselves.
Longestlurker- John smiths death is imo a real sliding doors moment. I think things would be so very different now had he lived.
Like some pps Alan Rickmans death caught me as I almost hadn't realised
A how much I liked and admired him
B how much of his work I'd seen - even though I've only seen one Harry Potter.
On a different note - James bulger - so shocking because of who the perpetrators were.
Holly & Jessica - I remember seeing Huntley on telly before he was known to be the perpetrator and absolutely "knowing" he was a wrong 'un.
The dunblane victims - who were just babies really and they must have been absolutely terrified! I lived on the same street as a primary school at the time - but in another part of the country hundreds of miles away. - and I remember for a good couple of weeks after, even though the perpetrator was dead, so many parents choosing to drop off and collect their DC from school rather than childminders or just mum etc as usual. And yet despite it being really busy it was also eerily quiet.
That's me just learned that Paul young's wife died. So young and so very sad for the family.