RIP Steve

[shadowspin]

Taken a while to actually accept it, after the kids came in from school and were telling me the news that had shot around the school like wildfire today - Steve Irwin's dead.

I admit when the guy first hit the screen I was turned off big time - thinking he was putting on this OTT 'Aussie bloke' personna to cash in on the US market which seemed to

Comments

[shadowspin]

TBH, it was probably the most fitting way for him to go, just totally wrong time. He was doing what he loved, making a doco, in a place he loved, the Barrier Reef, with his crew which were as close as family to him. A quick stingray barb to the heart, which they were saying tonight would probably have killed him almost instantly was basically as freaky, but also as painless as you could imagine, given the sorts of things he's done with crocs, sharks, snakes, spiders etc. One of those taking him out would have been a helluva lot more painful and or horrific.

I'm just hoping that someone was able to get the news through to Terri and the kids, who were trekking down in wilderness in Tasmania. They normally don't release any information until family has been notified but there were some reports that Terri hadn't been able to be contacted down there by the time it was being reported around the world.

The other thing that really surprised me was that Wikipedia was already updated with the information on his page when I had a look at it less than 6 hrs after the news first broke! Now that would be horrible, to just happen to stumble across the news that way.

[anann73]

Yeah, the way he died is probably the best way he could have gone. Just not now. I'm especially sad for Bindi, because she obviously worshipped him and wanted to be just like him, and she's old enough to understand. I did read an article a little awhile ago that said Terri has been notified, and has told the kids. This must be so hard for her too since they've been together so long and did so many things together. I'm sure she probably had fears something would happen to him but not anything like this.

[shadowspin]

Definitely not now. Losing someone like him, his passion and enthusiasm for life, is a sad loss indeed. And especially for Bindi who absolutely adored him. As did Terri. They were a very close family, but one thing that's good is that his whole crew especially, or their whole crew, including probably all of the 500-odd staff at the Australia Zoo, were pretty close too. So she has a fairly good and strong support group around her, something again that has been brought about by his enthusiasm and love of life and the people he worked and lived with.

They had a couple of the guys from his crew on tonight, just simply explaining what happened, and it was easy to see they were all still pretty stunned, the only one who really was able to talk about the actual situation being the paramedic who worked on him and had to pronounce him dead. It was nice to hear the two they talked to tell their stories about him though. And one of the reporters was telling about her last trip out with him, diving with sharks, and how he'd been talking about all the things he had planned and were coming up... she was a little choked up by the end of that.

[anann73]

I'm glad she's got all of those people to help support her. You can tell on his TV show that everyone thinks he's great. He was wild and crazy but he so obviously was passionate about what he did, and animals. I would have liked to have gone to his zoo someday and actually seen him.

I heard one guy on the phone here calling from Australia. I believe it was his director. He sounded stunned too. I'm sure even those who were there are still finding it hard to believe. I kept hoping it was a joke until they started talking about it on the news.

[shadowspin]

Well when the kids came running in to tell me when they arrived home from school I thought it had to be a mistake, esp when they were saying at first they thought it was his leg. Yeah, stingray barbs are pretty dangerous, but I figured with his knowledge and the crew around they'd have been able to deal with it, and it was just an exaggeration, as you get with rumours and celebrities. But of course a few hours later it was all confirmed with all the news stories leading with it and even grabs from the PM and our state's premier talking about him, and the loss.

[anann73]

Thal sent Allison and me a Yahoo article last night and I was hoping it was a fake one like someone did about someone awhile ago, I can't remember who. I turned on some news stations and no one was saying anything... but then it scrolled along the bottom and I had to accept that it was true. :(

[shadowspin]

It wasn't till I'd talked with a few people online, answering questions and the like, that I was able to even post about it.

[anann73]

I actually cried a little bit when I told my mom about it.