RIP Dana Reeve and Gordon Parks

Two great human beings died this week. Dana Reeve, the widow of Christopher Reeve and a talented singer/actress in her own right, died of lung cancer just short of 45 on Monday - even though she never smoked. She stayed with her husband and faithfully helped him in his attempts at recovering from the 1995 equestrian accident that paralyzed him in the nine years between the accident and his death. She campaigned tirelessly for stem cell research in attempts to cure paralysis, despite disinterest in the research from the White House.

Also, there was Gordon Parks's death at 93 yesterday. Movie director, author, composer - Gordon Parks was all of these. He was primarily a photographer, though, taking pictures both of real Americans for Life magazine and of fashion models for various women's magazines. (Gloria Vanderbilt was a close friend of his.) Parks brought both a great deal of passion and caring to his work, and he was always pushing himself to explore and master more avenues of expression.

Both Dana Reeve and Gordon Parks will be missed. :-(