A woman takes a fall during a ski lesson on the beginner slope at Mont Tremblant -- and ends up brain-dead?
How awful and bizarre is that?
One news report noted that poor Natasha Richardson was "not wearing a helmet."Well, of course she was not wearing a helmet. She wasn't a downhill racer. She was a celebrity actress taking a beginner ski lesson.
This horrifying story offers one more lesson that snow and ice are treacherous and, so easily, potentially deadly. My ex-boss, Washington Post Co. owner Katharine (Kay) Graham, died from a slip on ice.
I once took a pretty low-speed fall on ice while doing a winter run in Washington's Rock Creek Park. My shoulder, nearly broken, hurt for two years. Another slip while walking on Connecticut Avenue nearly broke my arm. Ice is bad news. You hit the ground amazingly fast and amazingly hard, and it's a matter of luck where you happen to land.
I met Natasha Richardson once, briefly. I was interviewing her late father, the British film director Tony Richardson, at a house he owned or was renting in the Hollywood Hills, in the late '80s or early '90s. He was making a comeback with some film or other. As I was saying goodbye at his door and heading for my car, Natasha Richardson arrived for a visit and we spoke. She seemed down-to-earth as well as quite pretty and smart.
I am so sympathetic to her husband, Liam Neeson, and their two young children.
This is one more bad thing in a generally bad time.
