Letter to Keph's mom -- I just found out about Khephra

[Nevernose]

I'm sorry to clog your inbox, but I haven't checked into DU for a few days, and I just found out that Khephra was gone. What can I say? I'm shocked. Stunned. I don't know what to say.

When I first posted on the Internet bulletin board known as "Democratic Underground," the first responses I got were from some guy named "sffreeways" and another whose name, if I recall correctly, was "Kentuck." Shortly thereafter Pitt came on the scene, too, and after that a newbie upstart named "Kheph" started posting. He'd broken my count within his first three weeks -- I remember posting something to that effect in my usually cynical style -- and had blown us all away within six months. But who knew this DU thing was going to last that long?

And now we're beginning the fifth year. The pain of the stolen election, the shock of 9/11, the Iraq invasion -- Kef and Pitt and Skinner etc. (obviously) and countless others have been with me since the beginning, and I've always just assumed that you guys always would be.

Keph and I weren't pen pals or anything, not even what you might call "Internet friends," but I always felt what you might call a "kinship" with the man. Just a couple of fat guys posting away from remote locations, compulsive news watchers, rabid sci-fi fans, only children, viewers of Japanese anime, recovering addicts, sometime humorists, and wannabe writers. The biggest difference between me and him, though, was that he really was a writer -- and I've read his thousands of posts on DU to prove it. One thing that I garnered from his myriad posts here was that he was a genuinely good man.

Since I first met Khephra and DU, I've managed to sober up. I've gotten custody of the kid, a bank account, a car, a nice house, a college degree, and God-only-knows-what-else. A large part of this is due to the camaraderie and fraternity I've found on DU, and especially some anonymous guy named "Khephra." He lent his strength to me, and I hardly even recognized it. His occasional personal posts really helped change my life and the life of my family.

I can count on one hand the number of times I can remember crying. After that horrible accident when I killed that young man, when my daughter was in the hospital and the doctors didn't think she'd live, when my mother spanked me after decorating her walls with crayon, and when my father died. I teared up again when I found out that Khephra was dead. It's not my intention to sound maudlin or self-pitying or overly verbose, but for those of you going to the funeral, if you could just express in whatever words you can how much Kheph meant to people, and to me, it would be appreciated. God knows that to many people he may have seemed a little out of it, but to me and others he unbdoubtedly had a positive effect.

[proud patriot]

1. Nevernose

:hug:

[Celeborn Skywalker]

2. . . .

[WilliamPitt]

3. Beautiful.

You should address this to his mom, not me. I am not going to be able to attend his funeral because of work, but Skinner is going. Make sure he sees this, so that Kef's mom can see it, too.

[complain jane]

4. what a thoughtful, beautiful post.

[Plaid Adder]

5. You should PM Rick_Myers and see if you can get this into the

memorial book he's putting together.

It's a great letter, I'm sure his mom will be really glad to have it.

The Plaid Adder