The death of Chadwick Boseman has left a lot of us grieving. I’m not ashamed to admit that I shed some tears. Only 43 years old. Sometimes fame, success, and wealth count for nothing. We’re all just mortal in the end.
I have such great admiration for people who can “suffer in silence.” I can’t do that. Never could. If I’m in pain or unhappy, there’s no way for me to keep it to myself. Anybody and everybody around me is going to know about it. Here this guy was, fighting stage 4 cancer the entire time he was making the movies we all remember him for, and nobody ever knew. I can’t even imagine the guts that entailed. Fortitude worthy of a superhero.
The Black Panther will live on, of course. The character is more than any one actor. Or we could say, the Black Panther is not only Chadwick Boseman. However, Chadwick Boseman *is* the Black Panther. Whoever may end up playing that role in the future, the one definitive portrayal has already been set into stone. Chadwick Boseman left boots impossible to fill. Such talent. Such charisma. And such courage.
He is with his ancestors now, and one with the Panther God. Wakanda forever!