Robin Williams Is Dead

I cannot believe I just wrote the above title. He was here and now he is gone. At 12 PM PDT Monday, he was found dead in his home in Tiburon, CA, an apparent suicide. The possibility of a suicide is what makes this all the more ominous and sad. A man who made us all laugh for decades and displayed such unbelievable comic genius and immense range was also battling a darkness that finally got the better of him yesterday. That he had wrestled addictions into submission for 20 plus years is well documented. But early in the 2000s, he relapsed, and in 2006 sought treatment. I'd forgotten that he'd had heart surgery in 2009. Just this past spring, he ended his run on "The Crazy Ones" on TV. The show, despite Williams' usual schizophrenic riffing, never quite caught on and was cancelled. Another vehicle that could not contain his over the top style.

Somewhere around that time, I'd heard he was selling his mansion because he couldn't afford to keep it up or something. I think the asking price was $6.5 million. So if anyone has that burning a hole in his pocket...

I remember thinking, "Oh, are things getting bad for Robin Williams?" The depression aspect of his persona never really registered with me. In fact, it never even occurred to me that he was battling that. Or that depression is a far more powerful and elusive illness than I'd imagined. Earlier today I mused that I understood it. I may have been mistaken. Everyone has sad moments, everyone gets discouraged sometimes. What Robin battled was more than that. It never occurred to me that this was also fuel for his mad genius. I guess things were getting bad for him. Despite working almost incessantly, that siren song came calling again.

He'd checked into rehab as recently as last month. And then, just like that, on Monday, he was gone.

Robin Williams
born 1951
died just yesterday in 2014 at a robust 63 years old.

Gone too soon.

We were not ready for you to leave us. But leave us you did.
After the shock and the denial, we may be angry. Then we will truly feel the magnitude of the loss. And it may be quite some time before we accept that you're no longer with us.


More Later

KCD

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