Between one thing and another, I didn't get around to reading most
of my friendslist yesterday. I finally got to it this morning, expecting
yesterday to have been a light day, as Sundays often are here.
Instead, I got quite a jolt. The shocking news, repeated by several
friends, that
filkergem
has died. Suddenly, out of the blue. In a house fire.
As at least one other person observed, it doesn't seem real --
I'm still processing this news, still adjusting my mental map of the
world to fit this fact. At the same time, it seems all too horribly
real. All the more so as I try -- and recoil and fail -- to imagine
what this is like for
kyttn
and
lovensong87.
I haven't the words.
And then I went to check whether my quote of the day had posted
correctly, and remembered what I'd queued up for today in memory of
the Challenger disaster, and suddenly I don't know whether
that quote is tackily jarring for everyone else who knew
filkergem,
because it mentions death by fire, or a fitting (if accidental)
honour because it's a song about defiance in the face of acknowledgement
of death -- a call to carry bravely on -- and a filk song, on a day
we mourn a member of the filk community. I really don't know which
way to call it. I'm still trying to accept that this has happened,
and that I'm really awake.