Friday 4 November 2022

Deja Vu Death

When football players agent Mino Raiola died of unspecified medical conditions on the 30th of April 2022 ....

Samuel Clemens - Premature Obituary
Samuel Clemens - Premature Obituary

 ....  it was perhaps no surprise as he had apparently been seriously ill for some time.

What was unusual was that it had been announced that he had died at least twice before his actual death. The latest such report prompted the agent’s official Twitter account to post this on the 28th of April: “Current health status for the ones wondering: pissed off second time in 4 months they kill me."

A close friend, Jose Fortes Rodriguez told De Telegraaf: "Mino isn't dead. Those reports are nonsense." .... but then on the 30th, it was reported again that he had died .... but this time for real. I couldn't help but be reminded that Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) had to deny dying, after his obituary had been mistakenly published in the USA. 

In 1897, an English journalist from the New York Journal contacted Twain to inquire whether the rumours that he was gravely ill, or already dead were indeed true. Twain wrote a response, part of which made it into the article that ran in the Journal on June 2, 1897:

‘I can understand perfectly how the report of my illness got about, I have even heard on good authority that I was dead. James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London, but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness. The report of my death was an exaggeration.’ .... often misquoted by the way.

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