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It’s a pity some talented people have to die young, like writers
and musicians who made a mark in our cultures but left us just so
suddenly.
A recent death in my family, that of a
31-year-old cousin, prompted me to think about young people who died
early, or who died while at the prime of their life, so to speak. I
am familiar with a lot of rock stars who died way too young, whose
talents the world misses to this day. There’s the guitar god Jimmy
Hendrix, female rocker Janis Joplin, Nirvana’s Kurt Kobain and The
Door’s Jim Morrison, all of whom died at the age of 27. Many other
musicians join this list.
But what about writers?
There have been several writers who had untimely
deaths in our history. Anne Brontë, youngest of the Brontë brood
who were mostly writers, died at the age of 29. She was the author
of Agnes Grey. Meanwhile, her sister Emily also died at an early age
(she was 30). Emily was more well-known for her novel Wuthering
Heights, now a classic in English literature classes worldwide.
British poet John Keats also died young, only at age 25.
But perhaps one death that stuck me most was
that of Sylvia Plath’s. She was a great poet and an equally
lyrical novelist. I loved her novel The Bell Jar when I discovered
it in college. I also saw the biopic about her featuring Gwyneth
Paltrow, who did a superb job of bringing her to life. As I sat
there watching her life unfold, albeit superficially, I was just
amazed at how a brilliant mind could contemplate her own death with
such precision and focus. She just put her head in the stove, while
the gas was on, and that was it. Dead, at 30.
I felt the same way in the late ‘90s when I
first received the message that a contemporary, trilingual poet and
painter Maningning Miclat, also took her own life, this time by
jumping from the stories-high building of the university where she
was teaching at that time. She was 28. Like Plath, I pondered on
what went on in her mind as she made that move and left us all here
to wonder. Such a brilliant talent, and such a great loss.
I’m sure this is also what our clan is feeling
about my cousin’s death. I want to extend my sincerest condolences
to all who were left behind by Donabelle Linsangan Orfinada Vergara.
I’m sure, like the writers and musicians that went ahead of her,
she’s in a better place now.
We’ll miss you, Wanbol.
Comments? Suggestions? E-mail
libay.scribevibe@gmail.com.
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