RIP: To remember those lost to us, whether close or at large

[ursula]

Not sure if this is the right place, but it's something I have to say today:  it's the anniversary of my dad's death, and even though it was 49 years ago and I was a little tiny sprout, I still mind.

[fleabite]

I'm so sorry. That's a loss that never leaves you.

[0susanna]

RIP for a professor who mentored me when I got my first FT job 30 years ago. She knew all the ways of the private university, and had seen it all as a single female academic in a culture that prioritized masculinity. Students respected and feared her--she did not suffer fools gladly--but she was always generous with her time, hospitality, and advice when requested.

[clean]

Today is the anniversary of my best friend and coworker's death as well.

Sorry for your loss.

[mamselle]

And there's a separate thread started, but I'll add Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and the others on that flight here as well.

RIP.

M.

[Bbmaj7b5]

Andy Gill, 64, influential guitarist for the Gang of Four, of pneumonia. I cannot overstate his influence on my own guitar playing in the early 80's, when I was trying to emulate Ritchie Blackmore and Eddie Van Halen and failing miserably. I saw the Gang of Four at a big festival in the California desert in 1982. They played for 45 minutes but it's both vivid in memory and ephemeral. Hugo Burnham behind the drum kit, smiling improbably at the bassist Sara Lee as their interlocking rhythm parts pushed the machine forward. Edi Reader on percussion, giving the machine a kick once every 4 bars. Jon King, sweating through his shirt, exhorting the crowd to action. And there was Andy Gill, in gray blazer and matching trousers, looking like an extra from a film noir, zooming across the stage with his Stratocaster, extracting ungodly howls from it in between razor sharp staccato shards of pure treble and lead lines that sound what someone would play while being tortured. It was terrifying, and perfect.

Johnny Greenwood, Tom Morello and Kurt Cobain took notes, for sure. His playing is still there somewhere in the stew of influences that inform what I play every time I pick up a guitar.

[paultuttle]

My husband's mother's birthday was January 31. She died at a very early age (early 40s) of a sudden stroke. The family had to decide both to put her on life support and then to take her off of it.

He has been alternately quiet and voluble while continuing to process his grief.

I'm so glad he was able to visit her grave when we were there in December; he hadn't been able to handle it for nearly two decades, but now he can, so it was a healing experience.

[apl68]

Only moments ago we learned that a regular library patron had just been found dead in her home.  She had been dealing with various medical issues, but this was still very sudden.  Though I did not know her personally, it has been a great shock to her family and friends, and library staff who did know her.

[mamselle]

I'm sorry for your community's loss.

Sometimes the library is the last community some folks have, in fact.

M.

[reener06]

I had a horrible semester and missed so many notices on this board. My deepest condolences to Octoprof and Nescafe and LarryC and others. And infopri is gone? I'm so, so sorry.

And I logged on in part for this: My 59 year old BIL died of cancer Saturday, too young. Really healthy guy who ignored symptoms for a year. Didn't like doctors. He fought it over a year after diagnosis came, but it was Stage IV by then. He seemed to have found peace in the end. He was hard to like, honestly, and so I have mostly not-good memories of him, but we saw him in October and his hardness seemed gone, and he seemed more accepting of people, and actually was supportive of me and my hard semester. This, after a lifetime of us on opposite political, moral, and pretty much every other sphere of life. He leaves 10 children and my sister, who is devastated. Heading to be with them in a few days for the funeral. The children are all almost grown--the youngest is 12, the oldest 32, and they just had their first grandchild. This is not how my sister envisaged her later years.

[mamselle]

As Octo said once...

"Too much death."

I'm so sorry for your family's loss.

M.

[clean]

 Dr. Li Wenliang, 34, was the doctor that was arrested by Chinese police for 'spreading rumors' to his chat group of former classmates about what is now the Coronavirus. 

If the coronavirus is able to kill otherwise healthy 34 year olds, then perhaps there are many more deaths to be reported.

[Katrina Gulliver]

Orson Bean was hit by a car and killed in LA, aged 91. RIP

[hmaria1609]

Orson Bean was hit by a car and killed in LA, aged 91. RIP

He was the voice of Bilbo Baggins in the 1977 "The Hobbit" animated movie.  I remember his role as Loren Bray, a merchant owner, in "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" for 6 seasons during the '90s.

[clean]

Robert Conrad died today.
I remember him as James West in  Wild Wild West, Pappy Boyington in Black Sheep Squadren and in a few Columbo Mysteries of the Week.