John Lennon - I can still clearly remember what I was doing that day. Such a senseless death.
Carl Sagan - he still seemed so young and seemed to have a lot more to give.
**Ayrton Senna ** - he’d just won the Australian Grand Prix in my city and it was a shock to hear the news.
Stevie Ray Vaughan - another wonderful musician who never realised his true potential.
JFK. I was in the second grade. Everybody had to go outside, and line up. All of the teachers were crying, but no one would tell us what happened.
John Lennon. Very depressing.
Payne Stewart. More unreal than shocking, though.
My ex-Father-in-law. He was the only person who stood up for me when my ex-wife split. He called me every day, to see how I was doing. I’m very thankful that I went over to see him on what turned out to be his last day. He was a former 5 pack a day/garage sailing type. He’d just purchased the rattiest acoustic guitar in history, and he wanted me to put strings on it.
I was pissed off about going over, but I did it anyway. Tuned up the newly acquired future piece of firewood for him, and played him a song. He wanted to pay me, but I wouldn’t take any money. He told me that he wanted to do something nice for me, but I said “You already have. Thanks for being my friend.”
Died that night.
Patrick O’Brien ,the knowledge that there would be no more Aubrey/Maturin books ever again was a real kick in the stomach though I know that sounds bloody selfish of me.
Without a shadow of a doubt, it was Princess Diana’s death that shocked me the most. Not the one that affected me the most, but definitely the one I had the most problems taking in.
A friend woke me with a phone call to tell me and after I’d hung up, I still couldn’t believe it. I immediately turned on the TV and sat watching the news and still didn’t believe what I was hearing.
So yes, that was the most shocking. But I was more *upset *by Freddie Mercury’s.
Sir Peter Blake. His death was so sudden and unexpected. He was a wonderful man and his loss is felt deeply.
Steve Irwin, it was so unexpected. I felt genuine shock.
Why did so many Americans mention Di? How did she effect them?
IANAA but I think that many people were shocked because it was not just a case of a young life cut down in her prime, but because she was such a high-profile celeb who was always all over the media, and then was suddenly and brutally dead, that people may have reacted emotionally even if they never particularly cared for her - at least that’s how I saw my own reaction.