Afterlives of the Rich and Famous Read online

  From Francine

  Bob, one of our most highly advanced spirits, began making regular trips Home while he was still in Germany. I’m sure there are those who would confirm that he was having conversations with many of his friends here months before he finally left his body once and for all, which actually happened during his flight to Florida. There were throngs of friends from Home and from his forty-four past lives waiting to greet him, including his father. The two of them have an interesting relationship—they shared a previous incarnation as half brothers in Kenya who lived in separate homes and were never particularly close. Bob grew up more advantaged than Norval and supported him from a distance throughout his life out of respect for their familial connection. The two of them charted a very similar dynamic for themselves in this most recent lifetime. Norval repaid his karmic debt to Bob while still keeping his distance—like some kindred souls, Bob and Norval are very good at fulfilling specific, important purposes in each other’s lives, but they bring out the worst in each other when they spend too much time together. It’s interesting that Bob’s remarkable influence on your world was partially a result of the strength he gained from growing up without his father and refusing to define that fact of his life as a disadvantage. He entered his final incarnation with great clarity about his life themes of Harmony and Justice, which gave him an unusual insight and sense of direction about obstacles that would have discouraged less focused spirits.

  Bob arrived Home with that same clarity, joyfully looking forward to resuming his full life here. He lives communally with a large, fluid group of friends on what corresponds to your island of Tasmania, where he continues composing beautiful songs of peace and unity and infusing them to a young Rastafari musician named Muata, who lives in western Ethiopia. Bob is also one of our most popular performers, joining a wide variety of other musicians from Jim Croce and Jimi Hendrix to Louis Armstrong and Andrés Segovia for brilliant concerts throughout the Other Side. It might interest you on earth to know that Bob’s song “One Love” is as familiar and beloved at Home as it is here. He’s an avid soccer and lacrosse player and, always a passionate master craftsman, has begun creating his own bass guitars to give to his many music students.

  Bob quickly resumed his position as an esteemed member of our network of peace councils—never believe there aren’t constant efforts on the Other Side to find realistic solutions to your world’s problems. His other great passion here is his work with and on behalf of animals, researching cures for common and often fatal viral diseases among the earth’s animals and also exploring the vast potential of stem cells in the treatment of a variety of orthopedic challenges.

  He was so eager to see his mother, Cedella, when she left her body that he actually traveled through the tunnel to hold her hand and personally bring her Home, and she now lives with him in his island commune. He closely follows his wife’s work with her foundation, and he thanks his son, Ziggy, for his ongoing efforts with the documentary about his life and urges him not to get discouraged by the “inevitable frustrations.” He was disappointed that he didn’t live long enough to fulfill his intention of writing his autobiography, and he’s hard at work on it now—when he’s satisfied with it he’ll be infusing it to a woman he says his son has met, but doesn’t know well yet, who will make herself apparent to Ziggy at the appropriate time, and the two of them will see it through to fruition.

  John Ritter

  Wonderfully gifted actor and comedian John Southworth Ritter was born on September 17, 1948, in Burbank, California. His performing talent came naturally from his mother, actress Dorothy Fay, and his father, legendary country singer and actor Tex Ritter. John’s older brother, Tom, was diagnosed as a child with cerebral palsy, triumphed over it, and grew up to become a lawyer.

  John was student body president at Hollywood High School and, after a very brief diversion appearing as a contestant on The Dating Game and winning a vacation two hundred miles from home, headed on to the University of Southern California, where he majored in psychology and minored in architecture. At the end of his sophomore year, curiosity drew him to an acting class taught by actress Nina Foch. He knew he’d found his niche and changed his major to theater arts. Between studies, in 1968 and 1969, he gained valuable acting experience by performing in a series of plays throughout Europe, and he graduated in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in drama.

  His first TV guest spots read like a history of television in the 1970s—Hawaii Five-O, The Waltons, M*A*S*H, The Bob Newhart Show, The Streets of San Francisco, Kojak, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, to name a few. While working on The Waltons, on January 2, 1974, he received the devastating news that his father had died suddenly of a heart attack in Nashville.

  In 1975 ABC-TV bought the rights to the Americanized version of a British comedy series called Man About the House. John was the first to be cast in the new sitcom. Joyce DeWitt joined the cast after a poorly received first pilot was shot. Suzanne Somers was hired after a poorly received second pilot was shot. And finally the right combination of characters and chemistry came together for the hit show Three’s Company, which ran for a very respectable eight seasons with John as the culinary student and ladies’ man Jack Tripper, who pretended to be gay to keep the landlords from objecting to his living with two attractive female roommates. During those eight years he began building his film career, with appearances in such moderate hits as Hero at Large, Americathon, Wholly Moses!, and They All Laughed. He also emceed the 1977 United Cerebral Palsy Telethon with his brother, Tom, which became one of his treasured annual traditions, raising many millions of dollars for a cause that was understandably close to his heart.

  When Three’s Company had run its course and John had done his best in the inevitable short-lived spin-off Three’s a Crowd, he had no problem making the transition right back to film again, with roles in almost thirty films between 1986 and 2006. In those same years his television appearances, including guest spots, specials, TV movies, and series, numbered almost sixty, making him one of the busiest, most versatile, and most sought-after actors in Hollywood for nearly three decades. He was rewarded with a Best Actor Emmy out of six nominations and a Best Actor Golden Globe Award out of five nominations.

  John’s personal life was refreshingly quiet and scandal-free. He married his first wife, actress Nancy Morgan, in 1977. They had three children—Jason, Tyler, and Carly—with whom John remained very close after he and Nancy divorced in 1996. John and his second wife, Amy Yasbeck, originally met in 1990 when they costarred in an episode of The Cosby Show. They officially began dating in the late 1990s, shortly before costarring in the hilariously tongue-in-cheek 1998 TV movie Dead Husbands. They were married in 1999, a few months after the birth of their daughter, Stella.

  In 2002 John began shooting a new television series, Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, which won the 2002 People’s Choice Award for Best New Comedy. On September 11, 2003, he was rehearsing with his close longtime friend Henry Winkler, who was guest-starring on that week’s episode, when he suddenly fell ill. He was rushed to nearby Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, where he died at 10:45 that same night. The cause of death proved to be an aortic dissection, a tear in the wall of the aorta caused by a previously undiagnosed congenital heart defect. He was buried at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery, after a private service at which John’s family and close friends said a reluctant good-bye to one of the industry’s most endearing, prolific, and highly respected actors.

  From Francine

  John is every bit as beloved, kind, and hilarious here as he was on earth, and although the suddenness of his Homecoming was a surprise, a huge crowd, led by his father, quickly gathered to welcome him. He was understandably a little disoriented, but a long embrace from his father and the sight of so many treasured friends calmed him into a quiet, joyful acceptance of what had happened and where he was, and there was no need for Orientation or cocooning. He worried about the grief his wife and children were
going through and quickly began visiting them to reassure and comfort them and to let them know how blessed he felt to have lived such a wonderful lifetime and then to have had the luxury of being in the midst of doing what he loved, with Henry by his side, when he began his trip Home. While death was never a subject that preoccupied him, he says that, when he did think about it, he hoped he would go quickly, as his father did, and it fascinated him that both he and his father went Home so close to their respective birthdays. [Tex Ritter died ten days before his sixty-ninth birthday, John six days before his fifty-fifth.]

  It’s also very much worth mentioning that John and Lucille Ball, kindred souls on earth and on the Other Side, had an ecstatic reunion when John emerged from his time at the Scanning Machine to resume his busy life. They often socialize and perform together, and it hasn’t escaped their notice that the causes of their respective deaths were very similar: John’s was a tear in his aortic wall, Lucy’s was a ruptured aorta. As a result, the two of them have begun taking courses in cardiovascular genetic disorders and imaging toward the goal of becoming part of our vast network of coronary researchers. John sends the message, “Please thank everyone involved in publishing the rules,” and adds, “They’ll know who and what I mean.” [From Sylvia: My staff checked the Internet and found “Ritter Rules,” which are described as “life-saving reminders to recognize, treat and prevent thoracic aortic dissection.” You can find a discussion of Ritter Rules at http://cbs2.com/local/john.ritter.heart.2.1565915.html.]

  John has also returned to his work as an Orientator in the oxygen chambers, where he’s treasured for his unique blend of faith, comfort, and humor among the new arrivals who need Orientation care. He and his father live in a modest house near their old friends Jesse and Patrick Swayze, the four of them sharing the idyllic, fenceless horse ranch they’ve always loved.

  He doesn’t plan to reincarnate, believing that from now on he can accomplish more on the Other Side and be of greater service than he ever could on earth. And, he adds, “With the exception of being here, I could never ask for more than I was blessed with that last time around.”

  Farrah Fawcett

  One of the true iconic “poster girls” of the baby boom generation, actress Farrah Leni Fawcett was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, on February 2, 1947, to oil-field contractor James Fawcett and his wife, Pauline, a homemaker. She was educated in Catholic school, at W. B. Ray High School, and then at the University of Texas at Austin, where her photograph as one of the school’s “Ten Most Beautiful Coeds” caught the attention of a Hollywood publicist. He encouraged her to move to Los Angeles to pursue a modeling career, and after some initial hesitation, her parents accompanied her to the West Coast at the end of her junior year. Within two weeks she was under contract as a model and in overwhelming demand for commercials and print ads.

  She also caught the eye of a handsome young actor named Lee Majors, who was starring in a series called The Big Valley, and they had their first date on July 28, 1968. They celebrated the five-year anniversary of their first date by getting married, on July 28, 1973, in a garden wedding at the elegant Bel Air Hotel. Farrah made several appearances on her husband’s subsequent series The Six Million Dollar Man, and the “supercouple” was a staple of the tabloids through the 1970s and early 1980s, where their separation in 1979 and divorce in 1982 often got as much press attention as their respective careers.

  After a number of guest spots on a variety of television series starting in 1969, Farrah costarred in the ABC Movie of the Week Charlie’s Angels in 1976, which became a series that same year. It was also in 1976 that the classic poster featuring Farrah, with her signature mane of blonde hair, wearing a relatively conservative red one-piece bathing suit, hit the market and became one of the bestselling posters of all time, with sales figures reaching well over ten million copies.

  Thanks to Charlie’s Angels, Farrah Fawcett was a fan sensation by the end of 1976 and was named Favorite Performer in a New TV Program at the People’s Choice Awards. She left the show after its first season, was sued by Aaron Spelling for breach of contract, and eventually settled out of court by agreeing to make six guest appearances in upcoming seasons. She promptly turned her professional attention to feature films and television miniseries, and in 1979 she turned her personal attention to actor Ryan O’Neal. While they were never married, they were together until 1997 and again, off and on, from 2001 until her death. Their son, Redmond, was born in 1985.

  Farrah’s next professional success came in 1983, when she replaced Susan Sarandon as an intended rape victim who takes revenge on her attacker in an off-Broadway production of the play Extremities. She received equal praise from the critics, not to mention an Emmy nomination, for her portrayal of an abused wife in the highest rated television movie of 1984, The Burning Bed. And her 1986 appearance in the film version of Extremities earned her a Best Actress Golden Globe nomination. Two more Golden Globe nominations followed as well as another Emmy nomination in 1989 for the disturbing fact-based miniseries Small Sacrifices. Her career as a respected dramatic actress continued until 2004 with a variety of film and television roles and a third Emmy nomination.

  Life seemed to imitate art during Farrah’s relationship in 1997 with producer-director James Orr. After playing several noteworthy, highly acclaimed roles as an abused, battered, or victimized woman, she herself experienced an incidence of domestic abuse by Orr when she told him she wanted to end their relationship. He was convicted of assault and sentenced to three years’ probation.

  Despite her turbulent personal life and rumors of a drug problem after her peculiar behavior during a 1997 David Letterman Show interview, Farrah’s beauty hadn’t diminished by the mid-1990s, and her Playboy photo spreads were prominent features of the magazine’s two bestselling issues of the decade.

  In 2006, less than a year after the devastating death of her mother, Farrah was diagnosed with anal cancer. She began a long, aggressive, highly publicized fight against her illness, with Ryan O’Neal by her side. She filmed even the most difficult moments of her battle for what would become a two-hour documentary called Farrah’s Story, which she coproduced with her friend Alana Stewart. The documentary aired on May 15, 2009, was watched by approximately nine million viewers on its network debut, and was presented with an Emmy for Outstanding Nonfiction Special.

  On June 25, 2009, less than three months before her Emmy victory was announced to a worldwide audience, Farrah Fawcett died in St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California. Ryan O’Neal and Alana Stewart were with her when she took her last breath, and her troubled son, Redmond, who was convicted in 2009 of felony drug possession and was serving time in a detention center when his mother died, was allowed to attend her funeral.

  From Francine

  Sadly, Farrah arrived Home depressed and disappointed. Although she’d grown very weary of fighting her battle against cancer and her spirit knew her chosen Exit Point had arrived, her strong-willed conscious mind was clinging until the end to the hope that she would win that war, provide a happy ending to her documentary, and inspire others not to give up, no matter what challenge they might be facing. Her mother, grandparents, and countless friends from her nineteen past lives were there to embrace and comfort her the instant she emerged from the tunnel. But not until she was cocooned was she able to experience the sacred bliss of the Other Side and appreciate that her fierce, courageous battle alone was inspiring enough, and the death of her body was to be celebrated rather than mourned.

  Like so many who return Home as the result of earthly diseases with high mortality rates, Farrah emerged from cocooning ready and eager to participate with medical researchers who are hard at work on a cure. She and all other cancer victims are invaluable to the process of someday eradicating the disease entirely, as they’re studied and tested before God’s promised healing takes place, and she has dedicated herself to classes in biomedical sciences so that she can become a core member of a cancer biology research t
eam.

  Otherwise, Farrah’s life is very much as it was before her latest brief incarnation. She prefers living alone, surrounded by what we’ve always referred to as “her cats,” a beautiful pride of lions who adore her and, like all of our jungle cats, are as gentle and playful as kittens. She’s a gifted, prolific impressionistic artist, and her gallery showings are among the few social events she attends. She’s considering another incarnation in which she says she would aspire “to be famous for something that matters” and not repeat her most recent life themes of Follower and Temperance, which she feels she handled poorly.

  Patrick Swayze

  Gifted, charismatic actor and dancer Patrick Wayne Swayze was born in Houston, Texas, on August 18, 1952. His mother, Patsy, was a choreographer, dance instructor, and the director of the Houston Jazz Ballet Company, and dance was a part of Patrick’s life virtually since he took his first baby steps. His father, Jesse, who died in 1982, was a champion rodeo rider and an engineering draftsman. Patrick, his two sisters, and his two brothers were raised in the Houston suburb of Oak Forest, and from elementary school through high school he put his exceptional skills to a wide variety of uses, excelling in everything from ballet and gymnastics to football, swimming, and ice skating to performing in school plays.

  After two years at Houston’s San Jacinto College, Patrick was hired as a dancer and ice skater, playing Prince Charming on a national tour of “Disney on Parade.” When the tour ended and he returned to Houston, he met Lisa Niemi, a sixteen-year-old student in his mother’s dance classes. He moved to New York in 1972 to pursue his dance career, and Lisa joined him there when she graduated from high school. They were married in 1975, a marriage that lasted for the rest of his life.