I was so hopeful that one day soon Christopher Reeve would walk. He had so much spirit about him and was very optimistic about one day being able to walk. Sadly, tonight he died after falling into a coma. This is very tragic for many reasons, but one which I would have loved to see is the stem cell research progress that would have helped him finally walk again.

So I was saddened once I read this a few minutes ago. Then, after visiting the Houston Chronicle website, I was shocked to find out that Ken Caminiti died (subscription required) of a massive heart attack! Ken was a star of the Houston Astros for many years in the 90’s before he became too involved with drugs. He had so much potential… He now leaves behind a family including three daughters.

These kinds of tragedies affect so many people and sometimes fall too close to home. I went in to work yesterday for the batman show and was fortunate to see a lot of my co-workers who I haven’t seen in a few weeks. While we were sweeping the stage, I was goofing around with one guy and he was happy to be laughing after a few rough weeks. It turns out his mother passed away a few weeks ago unexpectedly. The stranger thing about it was she was only in her early 50s and she died naturally. It happened really early in the morning and he and his family were woken up early to have to deal with this loss. I can’t even imagine how I would have reacted in his shoes, but he was obviously broken up for a while grieving.

It was amazing, however, talking to him. He was very open about the fact that he was confident that it was his mother’s time, that God needed her back at that time. That is such a very deep statement to make so openly and proudly like he did. Some people would be questioning God’s purpose in letting someone die but he was happy to know she was in a better place. It’s little things like this that keeps me optimistic about the good in mankind.