Those of us who have seen someone through a terminal illness know the importance of living each day as if it were your last.

A few days ago, a beautful, 45-year-old mother, wife and actress went off with her young sons for a beginners’ ski lesson. She took a run-of-the-mill fall on a bunny slope, and, a few days later, she is brain dead, and then taken off of life support. She died today.

Ironically, her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, had a long Broadway run playing Joan Didion in The Year of Magical Thinking. She was wonderful, but in the way life can imitate art, the storyline involved Didion’s loss of her daughter, also relatively young.

Natasha Richardson was a talented young actress with so much to live for. This is very, very sad for her and for her entire family.

Any time someone is cut down in the prime of their life, especially someone so talented and vibrant, it should be a reminder of the importance of seizing the day.

Of not waiting to make dreams come true.

Of taking risks. And always, of telling those we love that we love them.

So, God bless and keep you, Ms. Richardson. I hope you lived every day of your life as if it were your last. Rest in peace.