For those of you who are regular viewers of BBC, you might have noticed that a friendly, familiar face has gone missing. Komla Dumor, who regularly anchored BBC World News and hosted Focus on Africa, passed away this month from cardiac arrest in his London home at the age of 41. He is survived by his wife and three children.
Regular news viewers feel something of a connection to journalists and anchors that they frequently watch. It's almost as if turning on the television invites the person into your home for an hour. You start to feel as if you know the person a little. I think that's why it's always a bit of a shock when a TV personality dies.
For many journalists, working at BBC would be a dream job. The internationally renowned British news channel is rivaled only by CNN International in terms of global reach and respect. Mr. Dumor was at the height of his career in the prime of his life at arguably the globe's best news outlet. He was, in many ways, on top of the world.
And then, suddenly and without warning, it was all gone.
His viewers will miss him, as will his colleagues at BBC. But the true tragedy is being suffered by the members of his young family, whose lives have been forever turned upside down. We often forget -- after the makeup is removed and the lights are turned off -- that TV anchors are human beings, just like us. They return home, wherein they take on the far more important role of husband or dad. While the world lost a great journalist, a family lost the center of its universe.
Life is short, and for some of us, all too short. We humans live life assuming that we are masters of our own time, but we are not. In his famous book, The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis poignantly states: "The man can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift; he might as well regard the sun and moon as his chattels."
So do make the most of your gift. And in the process, be nice to other people. For you never really know when you say "goodbye" if it will be your last.
(Photo: BBC)
