Grubby at PokerWorks

It seems like only a couple weeks ago when we had our role model and modern orator taken from us in the prime of her life.

Of course, I’m talking about Anna Nicole Smith, America’s Sweetheart.

I’ll never forget that fateful day.

What struck me most was how clear and sunny the sky was, particularly unusual for a winter day.

I was too young at the time to really know what she meant to the world. I didn’t know then that her body would later tour all the states in the U.S. and all the rooms in the Playboy mansion.

I remember Mrs. Hopkins, as she entered our classroom late. She made eye contact with each one of us, wiped away one tear, and said in a whisper, “Kids, something’s happened to Anna.”

One girl who was on TrimSpa screamed and fainted.

The rest of us went numb, too shocked and grief-stricken to do anything.

But we knew it was coming. Somehow we had spent a lifetime preparing for this news. A legend can’t live that long, and she had given us so much.

The principal announced over the loudspeaker that he was calling an immediate assembly. I thought they were doing drug searches again, so I started to make a pitstop to the boy’s restroom. But then I thought, what would Anna do? Would she face her fans proudly drugged up as she did a countless number of times, or would she lay down in a pile of her own vomit?

We gathered in the gymnasium where they wheeled in TVs for us to watch as events unfolded. The images were black and white and full of static, but somehow it suddenly became clear when Stephen Colbert appeared at his desk, took off his glasses and looked behind him at the clock to announce the exact time of death.

Then Mayor Giuliani came on and declared that day Anna Nicole day and said we should all go home to be with our loved ones because it’s “more than any of us can bear.”

Anna Nicole Smith, dead at age 39.

Writing it out like that still doesn’t make it seem real.

I’d once met Anna Nicole years ago when she was promoting her latest magazine shoot. This was during her heavy years when she was the largest supermodel in the world. No one thought she would lose weight, everyone thought she was unsinkable.

I remember running alongside her motorcade as she waved to the crowd and blew kisses. I stood at the front and gave her a soldier’s salute with a big goofy smile, hoping to charm her into taking me as her future husband if I ever got old enough.

Little did I know I’d never be old enough.

It seemed to me she lived her life like a candle in the wind.

Goodbye, Anna Nicole.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 1:33 am and is filed under Uncategorized.