For Heath fans:

[Coexist]

Lucky little girl looks just like her Daddy!

My heart goes out to the family.



link to photo

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

1. God,is she cute! Sad story---I lost my father at age 4---it's tough.

[Skittles]

4. I am curious, F

do you have any memories of him? I dated a guy once who lost his dad at a young age and he said he could vaguely recall him although sometimes he wondered if they weren't just picture-induced

[Blue_In_AK]

6. I lost my brother when I was 7 and my mother when I was 8...

I have only very vague memories of both, I think because my father, in his own pain, chose to move on and not talk about them much once they were gone. There was no "grief counseling," etc. back in those days, and since both of their deaths were accidental and sudden, I think psychologically I shut down. I'm 61 now - it was a long time ago.

My guess is that if a parent dies more slowly and the child has more time to say good-by, that the memory lasts longer and the death is not so traumatizing.

[Skittles]

7. interesting theory

it would seem to me to be very tough to lose people so close to you at such a tender age. I was 27 when my dad shot himself and lived for six days - my youngest brother was only 16. It's very hard, cannot imagine what it would be like for a small child.

[Blue_In_AK]

8. It was a very difficult time for me.

My brother accidentally shot himself in a hunting accident when he was 14. My mother was profoundly changed. That much I do remember, that she was so very depressed, and I could do nothing to make her happy. A year later, almost to the day, my parents and my remaining brother were in the car wreck that killed my mother. I had spent the night before with neighbors and had chosen not to go with them to my grandparents' that day, for reasons I will never know. My mother died, and my dad and brother were hospitalized for months. I was left with my stern Quaker grandma and grandpa on their farm. They cared for me, of course, but they were not warm, they didn't know what to say to me. I was very alone. Because of rules in those days, as a child I could not visit my family in the hospital. Nobody talked to me about what was happening. I was one scared, terrified little girl.

I survived, though, and I think gained strength from the adversity and loss. I learned to rely on myself, and that has stood me in good stead throughout my life.

[Skittles]

9. awful

you have turned out very well in spite or maybe because of all that tragedy :)

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

14. I have two ,what I call,"snapshots" of him in my head.

One was watching him come home from work and I was sitting at the kitchen table waiting for him at the window.It was daylight and he got home early.

The second was him waving from the hospital window and dropping me a birthday gift from his room. He was hospitalised for 6 months and had tuberculosis so I didn't really see him for a while before he died.

It was many,many years ago and those are the only memories I have ever had.

[Radio_Lady]

2. I hope Michelle Williams and her daughter find some peace and happiness in the future!

Heath's family in Australia look as if they were still in shock and asked for privacy.

[Skittles]

5. it's a good thing they don't live here

the media is absolutely disgusting

[Radio_Lady]

12. Media types yesterday alluded to her living somewhere else in the New York area.

The family lived together in Brooklyn, didn't they? Perhaps the report was not accurate.

[Skittles]

3. spitting image, as they say

just adorable :cry:

[libodem]

10. Poor little girl

my son's lost their dad when they were very young. 18 months, 4, and 6, they don't remember much about him. I had a friend tell me that 'spittin' image' comes from 'spirit and image' pronounced with a southern accent. As in, a relative might be the very spirit and image, of an ancestor.

[Coexist]

11. what a wonderful factiod.

thank you for that.

[Radio_Lady]

13. "Word Wizard" has quite a long page devoted to this phrase and its beginnings:

http://www.wordwizard.com/ch_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6909

Word Detective Evan Morris:

Yet another theory regards "spit" as a shortened form of "spirit," but there is no real evidence for this, and it sounds to me like another "folk etymology" effort to make a very weird phrase slightly less weird.

World Wide Words by Michael Quinion:

Quite a different origin is suggested by other writers, who argue that ‘spit’ is really an abbreviation of ‘spirit,’ suggesting that someone is so similar to another as to be identical in mind as well as body. Professor (Larry) Horn is sure that this supposed derivation is wrong.