I too am so sorry for your losses. Losing just one person is hard enough. Losing three in a month seems unimaginably hard to bear.
I think one of the reasons that the "death comes in threes" saying is so popular is that people tend to use celebrity deaths as evidence. Often, it seems like a famous person dies -- an entertainer, perhaps -- and within the next few weeks, another one or two famous people die, possibly also entertainers. We will sometimes say "Well, death comes in threes," but that suggests that these three totally unrelated people somehow had a connection between them that influenced the times of their deaths.
Also, I think once we hear about a famous person who died, our "radar" is up to hear about the next one, and the next, almost grouping them in our minds. However, we never notice all the well-known people who die in "ones".
In 1997, fashion designer Gianni Versace died in July, Princess Diana died in August, and Mother Teresa died in September. Many people grouped them in a set of three. However, a connection between a designer being shot and killed in Miami, a princess dying in a car accident in Paris and a saintly nun at the end of a long life in India seems coincidental at best. It's just because we notice them so much that it seems to prove so.
Best wishes to you as you move ahead through such a hard time. Come back and tell us how you're doing.
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I too am so sorry for your losses. Losing just one person is hard enough. Losing three in a month seems unimaginably hard to bear.
I think one of the reasons that the "death comes in threes" saying is so popular is that people tend to use celebrity deaths as evidence. Often, it seems like a famous person dies -- an entertainer, perhaps -- and within the next few weeks, another one or two famous people die, possibly also entertainers. We will sometimes say "Well, death comes in threes," but that suggests that these three totally unrelated people somehow had a connection between them that influenced the times of their deaths.
Also, I think once we hear about a famous person who died, our "radar" is up to hear about the next one, and the next, almost grouping them in our minds. However, we never notice all the well-known people who die in "ones".
In 1997, fashion designer Gianni Versace died in July, Princess Diana died in August, and Mother Teresa died in September. Many people grouped them in a set of three. However, a connection between a designer being shot and killed in Miami, a princess dying in a car accident in Paris and a saintly nun at the end of a long life in India seems coincidental at best. It's just because we notice them so much that it seems to prove so.
Best wishes to you as you move ahead through such a hard time. Come back and tell us how you're doing.
October 13, 2008 - 8:29amThis Comment
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