Living where I do, and having occupied the same overall economic bracket all my life (comfortable and blessed for here, but not so that I can just hop on a plane to meet my heroes at conventions halfway across the world ever), I long ago kinda made my peace with these encounters simply always being out of reach. I mean, I'd never even be able to attend a Botcon or SDCC at all (let alone one they were at), and I know this even now. I knew long ago that I would never meet Peter Cullen, Jason David Frank, Kevin Conroy, Beverly Cleary, Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, Rob Reiner, and more (even those still living, who I won't name because f you death, leave them alone) and give them the seven-millionth bit of thanks from some rando their work meant a lot to. The best I could do was "maybe someday".
So to some degree, permanently losing that opportunity stings a bit less. But now, even the small comfort of knowing they're out there doing their thing and hopefully living good lives, is inevitably gone. We're so (rightly) caught up in making our own journeys that it's easy to forget that everyone else is getting older along with you, and dealing with health stuff across all those years just like you are.
And this is sobering in a whole new way. As hollowing as this death is (and all of them have been to various degrees), this is just one more unsolicited reminder that we all have something and someone to lose and never get back, and that it's GOING to effing happen. Optimus Prime's death was the first thing to teach me this lesson 40 years ago, and I live and love my people in a deep, existential fear to this day, because wouldn't you know it, life just keeps hammering it home person by person.
We won't all get to meet and thank our heroes and people who meant a lot to us from such a distance. But there are people in our lives who do mean a lot to us, and we can thank them and value them right now. Love the people you love and make sure they know it, while they're around to.