Ms. Cicely Tyson and Cloris Leachman; The Crying Game

 I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE

Too many folks are dying these days. Every day, it seems, we're losing more and more incredible people.

I didn't know Cicely Tyson but I very well could have. She was a classy lady, the real deal. Her appearance in Sounder was magnificent. And a couple of years later, Miss Jane Pittman, a real tour de force and even more powerful than Sounder if you can even imagine that's possible.

Ms. Tyson had a great influence on my life. She was both royalty and real. I was 12 in 1974 when Sounder debuted. It was a defining movie for Ms. Tyson. Her career was at its earliest; who'd have thought it was the beginning of something far more profound ahead.  What a lady. What an artist. What beauty and royalty. Just a remarkable lady who oozed class.

Cloris Leachman, I'll remember her more as a friend of Mary in the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Why do I write about her? What would make me be so melancholy about the passing of these two women; after all, they both had a relatively good life; they lived well into their 90's; they made it close to the century mark.

Before I continue, a short pause

This is out of the ordinary. I'm out of the ordinary. Surely, you must know that by now

I continue.

I am sort of crying a bit right now. The people who had major influence are all dying on me. It's not fair. My childhood moments are being carved up into the abyss. 

Why now? Why all of a sudden. Life isn't fair. It must be more than just a phase because it's happening like every day.

I hadn't paid much attention to Ms. Leachman over the years although she was a definitive force of the 1970, 80's and 90's. I know she appeared on Dancing With the Stars in her 80's but my memory of her was her role in Mary Tyler Moore.

The character. The comedic thrust. The time, 70's and all. I know MTM was more a women's-oriented show but I watched it regularly. You don't get much retail acting cred as Cloris Leachman provided. And indelible figure was she.

And the same for the fantastic, classy, major movie star and luminary Ms.Tyson. A treasure to watch and observe. A person with whom I always wished I could meet and interview. What a tremendous woman. What a tremendous person who superseded mere Hollywood regalia. Much more.

I'll always remember Ms. Tyson's appearance on a Merv Griffin Show way back in the late 70's. She talked about roles she'd wanted to play but never that never materialized. She talked about portraying a Black woman news anchor in Chicago during the 1960's racial tension in America. What a shame it didn't come off. That would have been a powerful movie. I'm sure Ms. Tyson would have aced it.

I'm bawling now Cloris Leachman. And now Cicely Tyson. Dear Lord, you're supposed to be a positive force and do-gooder so why in heaven are you taking all my heroes and heroines away from me. Mortality isn't fair and I know you possess all the best of intentions, but lately you've gone into overdrive and it hurts. 

This will probably not generate a lot of blogger hits. So be it. That's not why I'm here. As you are aware.