Many iconic celerity figures left us in 2016

Celebrities are born, live a full life, and die just like other people. It does not matter if they play professional sports, have regular leading roles on the big screen, or use a six-string to sing ballads. Perhaps it is because of the type of lives they lead that they tend to touch us all in some fashion. They represent our hopes and dreams of what is possible.

However, it seemed 2016 was a never-ending funeral for another piece of our souls. The new year bell had barely finished when David Bowie left this earth. There are many fans convinced he transformed into the Starman and became his own space oddity.

There were no deathly hallows for Alan Rickman when his time came. One can only hope he found Lily. This was when people began to suspect this was not going to be an ordinary year.

The hits kept coming with band members moving on to join a singing group of a different kind. Who knows, Phife Dawg and Prince might have teamed up with Glenn Fry to sing about a five-foot assassin driving easy in a red corvette.

At least once a week another well-known name was added to the list, sometimes four in one day. The last three were the most heartbreaking of all. Carrie Fisher, actress and out-spoken advocate for mental illness went the way of the Force. Her mother, Debbie Reynolds followed her a day later. Then, just when we thought the year was done and we could put away the tissues, William Christopher exchanged his rosary for a halo.

They were astronauts, respected reporters, political activists, authors, musicians, sports players, 160 names in all. Their passing left a gaping hole in our souls. For most of us, we only knew them in roles they portrayed, recognizable faces on TV as they sit smiling and giving interviews. We didn’t really know them, but we could swear we did.

They taught us there could be more to life than what is in our walls. In showing us how people could be, they reinforced the goodwill that humanity can hold. They gave us ways to embrace at our dark side and it was okay. In showing the good guy has flaws he became more human and less like superman. The villain is not always evil that needs to be defeated.

It is also what they did with their lives that touched us so much. Many of them were involved in the community around them, seeking to leave it better than what they found it. They were not satisfied with the world as it was. They looked for ways to make it better and they did.