With the sudden loss of the beloved actress Catherine O’ Hara, 3 Doors Down singer Brad Arnold, and even the Dilbert comic strip creator Scott Adams, 2026 has already opened with some sad news. Fans everywhere are paying respects as we are only barely into February of this new year. What we all know is coming, is by the time we are saying Happy New Year to welcome 2027, this list will sadly grow with more notable members of our society passing away before the 2026 year is over.

As I started remembering the great movies Catherine O' Hara was featured in, or the famous songs Brad Arnold was a part of, or the cartoons Scott Adams drew, I started to think of all the other notable people who have helped shape our society over the years in our lifetime and even before then who also passed away--but still left behind some sort of legacy or contribution to society.

For example, what more magical creations could Walt Disney have made, had he had not died at the very young age of 65? Or could F. Scott Fitzgerald have produced more books had he lived past the age of 44? Or what additional songs could Selena have released, had she made it past 25?

We have been talking about making personal Reflektions here at Reflekta of our loved ones, but I started to think about all of the wonderful people from the past that would be neat to somehow be able to still talk to and learn from. Walt Disney died before I was even born, but he has inspired me so much in my life through creativity, magic, imagineering, and art--not to mention how he helps families even to this day spend quality time with one another. Knowing that he has made a profound difference in my life…when I have never even physically met the guy…makes me interested in being able to talk to him as a Reflektion.

I know as a Reflektion it would never be the true Walt Disney himself--but with all of the books written about him, it would be pretty neat to interact with his Reflektion. I am sure he had more ideas he wanted to share with all of us, and more he wanted to teach us...but he simply ran out of time. Maybe this is a way we can learn more now from where he stopped teaching us then.

For someone who didn’t get a chance to know Walt personally, this would be a way to connect and learn from him in the best possible way any of us really can now from anyone from the past--those we personally knew and those we wish we got to know better.

Maybe one day this could be possible…who knows, right?

If you could talk to someone from history, who would it be and why?