Crikey!

I find it interesting, and perhaps a little confusing, that people would be so devistated by the loss of a public figure they have never met.

A few weeks ago, Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin was killed when a stingray barb pierced his heart. A tragic event in anyone's estimation and I was as shocked as anyone when I read it in the paper, but I had no idea it would bring such an outpouring as the emotional tidal wave that seems to have struck the earth.

I've spent the best part of the last week processing some of the 20,000+ condolence emails that were sent in relation to his passing. Of course there were plenty of Aussie and American ones, but I was more than a little surprised by some of the far flung places that people had been touched by Steve's enthusiasm for animals and the environment.

There were plenty of sappy (read: so over the top they nearly made me gag) messages that seemed like people felt they had to write something just to say they had.

Other people felt that they should offer to be there to talk to if the family need it and left their contact details. It's kind of nice I guess, but why would you write to or call a random stranger when your husband/son/father has just died?

We also had quite a few nasty ones that had me wondering why a person would even bother to do the Google search to find the website. I mean really. If these people stopped to consider how they would feel if someone wrote these things about one of their dead family members, I'm sure they would think twice about posting such dreadful things.

One message brought tears to my eyes on Friday. An Australian who had been living overseas for several months in a country where he was about the only English speaker. In his loneliness he found a connection to his home country through watching Steve's shows and the news had hit him fairly hard. The message was full of such raw emotion that I am in tears again as i think about him now.

I think my favourite ones were from kids. So honest in sharing how they felt about the situation and there were definately no flowery speeches composed in order to impress the reader. Just plain and simple stuff like "Dear Bindi and Bob, I'm sorry that your Dad got stinged by a stingray. I hope you feel better soon. He was a good crocodile hunter".

What is it that makes people form such deep connections to a celebrity (they have never met) that they feel as though one of their own family members has passed away. What will they fill this emptiness with when their "grief" subsides?