There are Giants in the Sky
Oct. 20th, 2014 12:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sun_set_bravelyThis LiveJournal, it is a rare and beautiful place. It was even more so in its heyday, maybe 2002-2005, when a few connections expanded my world and I met marvelous humans whom I might not have bumped into otherwise.
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roadnotes was one of those humans. On Saturday, she passed away. Cancer.
We met perhaps twice in person while we were both still living in Brooklyn, once in 2003 at the piano bar Rose's Turn. She was quiet and marvelous, and we mostly sat together in comfortable, warm silence while others in our group chatted. We spoke about fountain pens, a shared obsession (one that she mentored me in). I never had the chance to sing with her at a piano bar, but I relished her stories of nights spent singing Sondheim at Rose's Turn or Marie's Crisis. Online, she was a generous witness to my heartbreak and falling in love. I can only hope that I was as present for her as she was for me.
Last night,freak1c and I stood together at the front of the Erasure concert, where we talked with other fans. One man told a fantastic story of meeting Stephen Sondheim by thanking a young woman at his side profusely for helping him get Stephen's attention. (The young woman turned out to be Sondheim's daughter.) His friend mentioned that she used to work at Marie's Crisis. I mentioned Velma to her; she didn't recognize her name at first so I didn't share the news that she had died. But later, as she scanned Facebook, she looked up at me with a stricken face. "The Velma who just passed away? Yes, I remember her."
In honor of Velma, I spent the entire concert singing my lungs out and I danced, danced, danced.
Her LJ "name" right now is listed as "but ain't no gyroscope can spin forever...." I don't know when she changed it to this, but it strikes me in the heart now. Her spin was fantastic and inspired so many.
Velma deSelby Bowen, you were loved deeply and will be missed just the same.
roadnotes was one of those humans. On Saturday, she passed away. Cancer. We met perhaps twice in person while we were both still living in Brooklyn, once in 2003 at the piano bar Rose's Turn. She was quiet and marvelous, and we mostly sat together in comfortable, warm silence while others in our group chatted. We spoke about fountain pens, a shared obsession (one that she mentored me in). I never had the chance to sing with her at a piano bar, but I relished her stories of nights spent singing Sondheim at Rose's Turn or Marie's Crisis. Online, she was a generous witness to my heartbreak and falling in love. I can only hope that I was as present for her as she was for me.
Last night,
freak1c and I stood together at the front of the Erasure concert, where we talked with other fans. One man told a fantastic story of meeting Stephen Sondheim by thanking a young woman at his side profusely for helping him get Stephen's attention. (The young woman turned out to be Sondheim's daughter.) His friend mentioned that she used to work at Marie's Crisis. I mentioned Velma to her; she didn't recognize her name at first so I didn't share the news that she had died. But later, as she scanned Facebook, she looked up at me with a stricken face. "The Velma who just passed away? Yes, I remember her."In honor of Velma, I spent the entire concert singing my lungs out and I danced, danced, danced.
Her LJ "name" right now is listed as "but ain't no gyroscope can spin forever...." I don't know when she changed it to this, but it strikes me in the heart now. Her spin was fantastic and inspired so many.
Velma deSelby Bowen, you were loved deeply and will be missed just the same.
