Notable Deaths of 2016

I have read that headline so often recently.  We are coming to the end of 2016 and we have lost so many people of note.  Every time I read one of those headlines I think, "Donny was a notable death." He was notable to me and to our family.  He didn't qualify to be part of the list that makes it online, but there is no loss felt more keenly by those that loved him.  There is such a hole in our lives and sadness seems to fill the space he had here in our lives.

As I read of one more celebrity that has died my thoughts go to their loved ones in a way new to me. The sadness that I feel for these families now that I have lost Donny is of a more profound quality.  I am more aware of what losing someone can do to you.  We read about fans mourning, but now I think more of the people closest to that person and their grief.  We all grieve in our own way, but there is sure to be some overlap.  

My own sadness as I read of these notable deaths deepens.  I know how I am feeling and can only imagine the grief these people are going through.  People die all the time.  It is part of the cycle of life, but for me and maybe for others it is unique.  All around the world people have just lost someone, but to each of us it is a new place for us to inhabit.  We have to learn how to be in this world all over again.  We are born into this new world that is missing the person who made the world a better place, a place to look forward to, a place with joy and laughter.

So, I will add my best guy to each list of Notable Deaths of 2016.  Donald James Koller was my "notable" and I am awash in some of the same grief these other families must now find themselves wading through.

The Hopeful Romantic