Well, I didn't see this coming...

[Izulde]

Received word some minutes ago that one of my best friends online, who I've known for 15 or 16 years passed away Friday morning of a sudden and unexpected heart attack.

She was 61, which is damned young to me....

She was the owner of the IRC channel I role-played on most extensively through the years and she was always kind and encouraging of people, both in-game and out of character. Even in my worst times, she always pushed and encouraged me to get off my ass and make something of myself.

Hell, just last week she was telling me not to give up hope on grad school and that I should keep working on my writing.... I thought she'd be around for years and years and years more.... I mean, she was only a few years older than my mom for crumbs sakes.

She was one of the kindest, most caring individuals I've ever known, seeing the goodness in even the people that a lot of others didn't like. It's a cliche, but it's true when I say that she was like a second mom to a lot of people in the channel.

I know to some people this sounds stupid because she was someone on the Internet, but she touched a lot of people's lives. Her husband said in her obituary that her Internet gaming friends will miss her and that's damned true... we will.

So goodbye, Di. We'll never forget you. :(

[Marc Vaughan]

Sad to hear that - she sounds like she was a wonderful person.

[CamEdwards]

Sorry to hear that Izulde.

[Swaggs]

Sorry for your loss.

[Raiders Army]

Sorry for your loss. Just curious, but did you ever meet her in person?

[Izulde]

Thanks, everyone.

It's been a busy night as you can imagine, with a lot of people coming back to the channel that haven't been there in months or years, everybody coming up with people from the channel to notify and delegating contact duties. It's amazing to see, really, as it'd become really quiet the last couple years with everyone busy with real life and such.

I'll be honest in saying the last time I cried this much and this hard was when my grandfather died in 2003. I think the shock of it has a lot to do with it and the fact that I and so many others were so close to her.

Her husband e-mailed one of us the obituary, her favorite picture of herself and the home address in case we wished to send our condolences. Although he was never a part of our game and never was in the channel, apparently she would comment to him about us on occassion.

As for your question, RA, no. She had lots of offers to meet some of us in person, but she always smiled and politely declined. In the spirit of that, I won't be going up to the service, even though it's only a couple of hours drive away from here.

Besides, I prefer to remember her as she was, always there for people with a virtual smile or laugh and words of advice, comfort or a kick in the pants whenever we needed it.

[MikeVic]

Sorry to hear. :(

[Raiders Army]

It says a lot that her husband notified her friends that he had never met. Obviously she had talked about you and others to her husband.

[Izulde]

Thanks, MikeVic.

And yeah, it does RA and I'm sure she did. Not all that different from some of us with FOFC and wives/husbands/sig others, I'd imagine.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

:(

[Izulde]

:(

Thanks.

It's been an insane last two days. Didn't fall asleep until 6:30 am and got up again at 9:30. Took another nap this afternoon and am working on a paper due tomorrow at the moment.

I'm going to be running on fumes for a few days, so it may be the end of the week before I'm around/dynasty updating much.