The latest developments in the mystery of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 have turned attention towards the pilot and have in turn raised hopes, albeit faint, that the people onboard may still be alive.
It’s really only when you find out the personal stories about people involved in tragedies that your cold fascination with a news story shifts into something more emotional and compassionate. I’ve just read an article from Malaysian paper The Star entitled Missing MH370 – The Faces Behind The Names and seen that one of the Kiwis involved is like me, a Bee Gees and Lionel Richie fan.
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| Paul Weeks with sons Lincoln and Jack. |
Paul Weeks has two young sons with wife Danica, with her saying in the article, “Thank you for all your thoughts, in a place I never wanted to be, trying to gather strength for my two beautiful boys, miss my darling with all my heart. x.” The article then says, “A Lionel Richie and Bee Gees fan, Weeks is dearly missed by his sons – three year old Lincoln and 10 month old Jack.”
The fact Weeks’ musical passions were mentioned in the solitary paragraph written about him tells me how much Lionel Richie and the Bee Gees must mean to him. More than that, how much the people who love him understand and respect that passion.
As someone whose life frequently revolves around music, reading this article humanized the whole MH370 story. No doubt when Lionel Richie and Barry Gibb hear about Paul Weeks they will be moved.Thoughts to Danica Weeks, her and Paul’s kids and all affected. A couple of songs from his favourite artists with a spiritual component seemed in order so here’s Lionel Richie in his Commodores days singing Jesus Is Love (1980) and the Bee Gees with Nothing Could Be Good (1981).