A subject I never wanted to see

[ckd]

John M. Ford, 1957-2006

As I write this the news is the first, second, fourth, eighth, ninth, twelfth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fourth, twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh, twenty-ninth, thirtieth, thirty-second, thirty-third, thirty-sixth, thirty-seventh, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, forty-seventh, forty-eighth, and fifty-first posts on my flist. [ETA: three more came in while I was writing this, and an additional one while I was adding this sentence.] He's missed by so many.

The fifty-second post was the last thing I read last night before going to bed.

I...damn. I don't have the words, and the person who I would have expected to have the words is gone.

I knew him only slightly; more than some, but far less than others.

I first met him on the first night of my first convention (Boskone 24, in 1987, aka the Boskone From Hell), at the Meet the Pros event. I recognized his name from, of all things, a story he'd written for the Car Wars magazine Autoduel Quarterly. I told him I'd enjoyed it, which I had.

Many years later, I met him again at Noreascon 4, and was lucky enough to get to spend some time talking to him at the past two Minicons and this year's Boskone. Elise asked me to join the "keep Mike alive" conspiracy, and I did my best. We all did.

I miss him horribly, and I barely knew him. I can only try to imagine what it's like for those who were closer to him. I wish them all the comfort there can be in knowing that he was so loved by so many of us.

I can't write any more right now.

Comments

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Belated sympathies.

It's been a few weeks, but the hole isn't getting any smaller. There's the joy of seeing the Book Endowment fund doing so well, and even more joy in seeing the creative enthusiasm John Scalzi, papersky and others are bringing to the effort. Those help, a lot. But there's still this hole.