Heath Ledger - the grieving thread

[LauraGigs]

I hope so much the family will have peace while they are going through this. But I too fear the media is going to go where they have to for those pictures to be published in every magazine.

Scum.  If a magazine has pics of his family in Perth that were taken anywhere other than the news conference, I won't buy it. 

[Kelda]

Jeff - yes - Michelle's Mum and best friend (and Matilda's godparent) were already at Michelle's apartment before Michelle even left Sweden.




I came across these poems today - you may recognise them - I thought they were appropriate..


Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die!
- Mary Frye (1932)

 

Funeral Blues

 

W.H. Auden

 

Stop all the clocks, cut of the telephone
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone
Silence the pianos and with a muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves

He was my North, my South, my East and West
My workingweek and my Sundayrest
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong

The stars are not wanted now, put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood
For nothing now can ever come to any good

And Eric.. I'm also lisetning to BBM Radio - thank you.

[Kelda]

Scum.  If a magazine has pics of his family that were taken anywhere other than the news conference, I won't buy it. 

well they took some of Michelle earlier  - I couldn't help myself I had to look... 

http://justjared.buzznet.com/2008/01/23/michelle-williams-en-route-nyc%20/#comment-2501129

[loneleeb3]

no matter what the truth is, it won't change my view of Heath.  He gave us Ennis, and for that, I will be eternally grateful.         

You hit the nail on the head friend!
Very Nicely put!

[nakymaton]

I personally don't think Heath was suicidal, or that he was overdosing on illegal drugs, but I'm afraid it's already in the public consciousness that one or both of those things was the case.

My husband repeated those things to me last night. I could have punched him. But I ranted about sensationalist media reports (and about the public hunger to feel morally superior to celebrities) instead.

If the problem is with a commonly prescribed medication, it's particularly important that the truth be known.

(*tries to suppress a rant about the FDA and the tendency for pharmaceutical researchers to report positive results, but to leave negative results unpublished...* Ummm, I know that I'm moving into the stage of grief that's all about anger, so I may be looking for a scapegoat.)

no matter what the truth is, it won't change my view of Heath.  He gave us Ennis, and for that, I will be eternally grateful.

Amen.

Thanks to all of you who are posting song lyrics and artwork. They help.

[ifyoucantfixit]

       I have always told my family as a way to get passed issues of this kind.  We love people because
of who they are.  Not because of who they are not.   We love them in spite of their faults,  Not because
they have none.  If we couldn't love people with faults.  We could neither love nor be loved.  We all
have faults.  it is too bad that we have to base our love on those kinds of judgemental attitudes.

       Heath was a very very sensitive and talented person.  He was neither a saint nor an unholy sinner.
He was a human.  He was subject to all the individual taints and problems that we are all subject to.
He was also subject to many other ones that we are not subject to.  May we look at the things
he was proud of in his life.  Things he gave as pearls of his life.  We who loved him like one of us, for
a particular role we identify with so much.  That alone was reason enough for us to love him forever.
I for one who does have faults of my own.  Do not expect others to be faultless.  i only expect them to
treat others with respect and kindness.  He did that in the largest of measures.  

                       REST SWEET PRINCE..............BE HAPPY AND FULFILLED

[BennyBoy]

Well no matter what...whether it was accidental or suicide, drugs or no drugs...I just hope he went quick and didn't suffer. 

I know that I personally am not afraid of death but am afraid of the suffering that may come before.  I pray to God that Heath didn't have to experience one second of pain.  That was the last thing that he deserved. 

[SFEnnisSF]

Tons of Heath pictures throughout his career:

http://movies.msn.com/celebs/celeb.aspx?c=300274&mp=p&GT1=7701

[SFEnnisSF]

And Eric.. I'm also lisetning to BBM Radio - thank you.

 

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

In SoHo, Heath Ledger was scruffy loner
BY MEHRNOOSH TORBATNEJAD and CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Thursday, January 24th 2008, 2:16 AM

To most of the world, Heath Ledger was an A-list Hollywood star, but in SoHo he was a scruffy specter who wandered the cobblestone streets mostly alone.

"I didn't know he was an actor," said Camile Angelo, the host at the Grotta Azzurra Ristorante at Mulberry and Broome Sts., where Ledger often ate breakfast. "He was always the first customer. He was always here alone."

Ledger moved to a SoHo loft from Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, last year after splitting with girlfriend Michelle Williams and quickly became linked to a slew of starlets and models.

But when Angelo saw the "Brokeback Mountain" star last Thursday, the actor had only his cell phone and iPod for company.

"I told him to stop text messaging because his steak and eggs were getting cold," Angelo said. "He smiled."

Liz Bullis, sales manager of Gourmet Garage on Broome St., said she sometimes saw Ledger with his 2-year-old daughter, Matilda. He usually wore ragged jeans, an old jacket, brown boots and a stubbly chin, but when she spotted Ledger buying organic sausages and bagging his own groceries Monday, he'd cleaned up his act a bit.

"He's usually very scruffy, but he was clean shaven," Bullis said.

The Miro Cafe on Broadway was another Ledger haunt. Once again, the unfailingly polite young man gave no inkling he was somebody special.

"We were surprised, we never knew he was an actor," manager Max Barrsi said. "He was practically here all the time for coffee . . . always very nice with us."

At the Spring Street Natural Restaurant, a bartender who asked not to be identified said Ledger often came by in the evening for a drink, which he nursed at a table in the back. He didn't stand out in the crowd.

"We have a lot of celebrities here," he said.