Is it over?

They say it happens in three’s. Don’t ask me who. But “they” say famous people die in three’s. Ok, define “famous”. I’d say it would have to be someone who has been in the media, is a person everyone recognizes, and whose death made the news.

So it started with Terri Schiavo. Beyond the media’s hype and the family’s struggles is my biggest question. What happened?

The reasons for Terri's death go beyond the removal of a feeding tube or medical ethics and religion. Terri was an overweight teenager, weighing 250 pounds at her heaviest. She apparently suffered from an eating disorder that led to dangerously low potassium levels that led to cardiac arrest. Her brain was not fed with enough oxygen and this led to severe brain damage. She lapsed into a vegetative state where her brain could make her heart beat but it couldn't make her recognize to her surroundings or function enough to feed herself.

Number two is the Pope. Or as I like to call him John Paul Dos. As a former Catholic, I feel a religious sadness but as a Baptist, I keep thinking “He was just a man”.

Some 18,000 mourners per hour streamed past the coffin of Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican Wednesday, the BBC reported. Other news agencies reported that elderly and small children should avoid the lines to see the pope due to 12-30 hour waits.

How devoted to you have to be to standing in line 30 hours to see a dead body? Wow, I was just going to send a card. I hear the street vendors are making a fortune selling food, water and souvenirs. Get your “My parents went to Rome and saw the dead pope and all I got was this t-shirt!”

And hopefully, third and final is His Serene Highness Prince Rainier Grimaldi III. Ah ha, I bet you didn’t remember he had a last name! Heck, he has so many names and titles his business card was as long as a roll of toilet paper.

Rainier III, Louis-Henri-Maxence-Bertrand, Sovereign Prince of Monaco, and
Duke de Valentinois, Count of Carladès, Baron of Calvinet, Baron of Buis, Lord of Saint-Rémy,
Lord of Matignon, Count of Torigni, Baron of Saint-Lô, Baron of Luthumière,
Baron of Hambye, Duke of Mazarin, Duke of Mayenne, Prince of Château Porcien,
Count of Ferrette, of Belfort, of Thann and of Rosemont, Baron d'Altkirch, Lord of Isenheim, Marquis of Chilly, Count of Longjumeau, Baron of Massy, Marquis of Guiscard, Knight Grand-Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta with Cross of Honorary Professed Member, Colonel of the French Army, Grand Master of the Ordrer of St. Charles, Grand Master of the Ordrer of the Crawn , Grand Master of the Ordrer of the Grimaldi, Grand Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honour, Membrer of the Pontifical Military Order of the Golden Spur, Membrer of the Ordrer of Seraphim, Collar of Merit of the Sovrereign Military Order of Malta, Grand Ribbon of the Ordrer of Merit of the Italian Republic, Grand Cross of the Ordrer of the Saviour (Greece), Grand Cross of the Order of Georges I (Greece), Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold (Belgium), Grand Cross of the Order of the Golden Lion of Nassau, Grand Cross of the Equestrian Order of Saint-Martin, Grand Cross of the Order of Mohamed Ali, Grand Cross of the Ordrer of Karageorgevitch, Grand Cross of the Military Ordrer of St. James of the Sword, Libanese Medal of Merit (Special Award), Croix de Guerre (France), Volunteer's Cross 1939-45, Croix de Guerre (Belgium), Croix de Guerre (Italy), Gold Medal of the American Legion and Olympic Gold Order.

And hey, who isn’t interested in fairy tales and tragedy. Then again, I live in Texas where you can drive for hours and hours and still be in Texas and his whole country was the size of New York’s Central Park. Talk about feeling hemmed in.