Ellen Million (ellenmillion) wrote,
Ellen Million
ellenmillion

RIP, @Valdary

Valerie Higgins has been a part of my projects since 2006. She was a member of Portrait Adoption, the Fantasy Art Shop, and helped with the brainstorming for EMG-Zine. She was one of my earliest recruits for Torn World, and is a wonderful artist and poet. More than that, she had heart. She was usually the first person to post at the forums after natural disasters, sending out hopes that none of of our members were hurt or missing. She always had a warm comment and a helpful suggestion. She was key in keeping our Torn World twitter lively - I actually dread having to update it myself, because I'm constantly forgetting the right hashtags, and which day it is (for Follow Friday and Writer Wednesday) and... because the Twitter feed was so very much her own, and I am going to feel that hole in my chest where she was every time I update it.

She let me know that she had cervical cancer early in 2008, and apologized every time she had to be absent from the forums because of radiation or other medical reasons. Her kidneys were in bad shape, and she told us stories about how much she had to drink, and failed stents and frank, funny, heart-warming stories about the hospice she spent time in, and the various indignities of being ill. She even wrote columns for her hospice. When her doctors were unable to give her a positive prognosis, she took it in stride, and contacted me in a matter-of-fact way, making sure that we were all square in the business department, and that I would continue to leave her artwork available and pay her son any proceeds from it.

She was unbelievably strong and full of common sense in the face of pain and hardship, and remained loving and generous through everything. I will miss her and mourn her.

Her last story was in the Torn World queue, and I have posted it today. It had already been approved and was waiting for the timeline to catch up, but it doesn't actively spoil any of the other stories, and... it may be of some comfort to the people who loved her.
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  • So many things!

    I finished a book yesterday. Well, revisions on a book. But I cut more than 10,000 words out of the old book and wrote 12,000 more, so it's BASICALLY…

  • New Release: Rails

    Bai knows better than to dream about his gorgeous Head of Files, Ressa. Fraternization at the Licensing Office is strictly forbidden, by his own…

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