Don’t make me cry, damnit.

“We know exactly what Mom is doing right now. She’s talking with her friend Nora, telling her how glad Mom is to finally see her again, all about us and how we’re doing.”

At times like this I envy them.

Eri was done to soon. I’m sorry. I’m going to listen to Neil Diamond explain that again right now.

wearing a stylish pressure suit, a cat at her ankles, and a fully loaded pun-gun on her hip…

Have fun out there, Eri.

This dimension seems flatter without her.

…Sigh…

I wish I was more active here while I was at college. I wish I was able to speak with her more. I know school was insane, and that it’s useless to regret such things, but the regret’s still there.

REB, the last guy here to die…. he was a great person, but he and I barely spoke. Eri… I didn’t know her as long as you guys did, but I still knew her somewhat. I was able to speak with her over the Zone before she died, and I feel that she, Like all of you ,was a friend of mine.

I’ve been to funerals before, and they’re hell. Everyone’s dressed in drab colors, that damn depressing music plays, the priests flit about their little rituals, and then they put their bodies in those damn depressing graveyards, where they’re forgotten for eternity amongst hundreds of rows of the dead. I’m glad Eri decided not to opt for that.

I feel that the dead should not be mourned as such, but rather celebrated. We should focus less on their death and wherever they may go after it, and more on how their life was lived, and how they are remembered. People can gather and share their stories of the departed, form every noble deed to every silly endeavor. Old friends can say their final goodbyes, and old enemies can make peace with the departed. There should be dancing, music, a veritable festival in honor of the dead. There is sadness, yes, but there should also be joy; joy in the fact that they got to live on this Earth; joy that they got to live as human; joy that they could experience everything this world had to offer, for better or for worse, in whatever amount of time they were alive; Joy that they no longer have to deal with the insane rat race of our planet, with the corruptness and evil of other humans, that they will no longer pick up a newspaper and go “aw, hell”; and most of all, joy that we got to share their life with them, as friends or as family.

I don’t believe in any religion nor any afterlife; but I do believe that those who left marks on this world will be rendered immortal through their words and accounts of them. Though their bodies are dead, their words, works, and actions – things that truly carry their soul in them – will be rendered immortal hereafter.

I can’t join you in Kansas City for those drinks, but I can pop open one from here in San Jose.

Long live Eri Patricia McFarland!

Two in a short period now.

Very sad, I have feared this was coming but I don’t like to speculate on the mortality of others.

A wonderful intellect, a great sense of humor, and I am so happy she won that writer’s contest. I know it gave he much pleasure.