Me: Let’s interview Steve Irwin! I always loved that man! So full of life!
Jamie: Steve Irwin. Who’s Steve Irwin? I know that name.
Me: That’s the Crocodile Man or something.
Jamie (to Erik): Okay, yeah. You can go get him. We have enough time?
Erik: Yeah, because he talks fast.
Me: Oh god, that’s true. Let’s go for it. If we can’t finish it all now, we can continue next time.
(Pause)
Enter Steve Irwin.
Jamie: God, I DO remember watching him on TV!
Me: What a wonderful spirit. And his daughter and wife are just beautiful.
Jamie (surprised): Ah!!!! HE’S A HUGGER!
Me: Awww!
Jamie: (laughing REALLY hard): He’s a toucher!
Me: Aw, did he hug you?
Jamie (still giggling):Yeah, they came up behind me and I could feel all this heat and oddness around my ear and my shoulder and I was like, ‘What is going on!’
Me: Aw, how sweet! Aw, I wanna hug, too, Steve!
Jamie (to Steve): Go to her house and hug her!
Me: Wait, we don’t have very much time, but afterwards, please. I want a Steve hug.
Steve: Done!
Me: Good! Thanks so much for coming, Steve!
Steve: Ah, you’re so welcome. Very happy to be here!
Me: Can you share your beliefs about death and the afterlife before you died? What did you think about concerning those two topics?
Steve (chuckling): I believed in both of them!
Jamie, Erik and I laugh.
Me: So, you believe in death, huh? Well, none of us are getting out of here alive, so it’s a pretty safe bet.
Steve: When you get a chance to work with animals and you watch their life cycles—because they’re so much shorter than ours—and you see the way they live and how peaceful they are when they let go of life, you have to know, just from that experience, that there something exists beyond that.
Me: And did your idea of death and the afterlife change after you crossed over?
Steve: It became more beautiful.
Jamie (tickled): I LOVE the way he talks; oh my god!
Me: Me too. Now, can you tell us about your transition? What was it like for you. You know it was a big shock for all of us. I was just heartbroken. I couldn’t’ believe that such a wonderful life had been cut so short.
Jamie: Oh my god; he said oh c-c-crikey or crickey.
Steve (laughing): Crikey!
Jamie: Thank you so much for saying that.
Steve: You know it was everything unplanned. My wife said it in perfect words. My beautiful wife, I love her so much. She says I died doing what I loved best. She said it’s true. My mistake, my misplacement on the animal was I wasn’t respecting its space.
Jamie; Stingray?
Me: Yeah, a stingray.
Jamie: Wow, in the water. He’s showing me in the water.
Steve: You know, people couldn’t get to me in time. It was just the animal doing its job. I respect that. I would have loved to have a longer life. I wanted that for myself, but it’s nice to know I’ve inspired other people to step up and look at the creatures that we normal feel are predators and not lovers and start to see them differently and have respect for them.
Me: Yes, and that’s what you did so well, Steve. You did that all through your life, which is wonderful.
Steve: Yes, and my—
Jamie: God, he is BORN to be in the limelight!
Steve: —wonderful daughter is continuing that. My son—
Jamie: He has a son?
Me: I don’t know. I don’t think so, but I really truly do not know.
Jamie: Huh. He’s showing me a son.
Me: Maybe it’s a brother, an adopted son, a nephew. I don’t really know. Practicing medicine and raising five kids myself, I didn’t have time for much TV.
Jamie: He says son. He insists. He says both of his children are carrying on hi legacy and his wife has been very diligent.
Steve: Yeah, so I feel like my death hasn’t been in vain. Maybe it was in God’s time, but it definitely wasn’t in my time!
Me: Are you saying it wasn’t your destiny to die when and how you did?
Steve: Right.
Jamie: He laughs very hard about that.
Steve: So, we just have to honor how the rhythm of life really works.
Me: Yes. If it was God’s plan for you to die when and how you did, why?
Steve (chuckling): I think it was about some cruel joke. I’m sure that when I finally found the love of my life and what I wanted to be—for that to be taken away. I dedicated my whole life for doing good, not just for people, but for the animals as well. I think the destiny of it all was that the story would be carried in so many thousands of people’s, millions of people’s hearts that they, too, would continue the spark of what I had.
Me: Oh, awesome.
