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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Boards to close for funeral today
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Simon
Editor
# 1
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Posted
Please note that the boards will close between 11 and 12am EST today to mark Erin's funeral (between 4 and 5pm GMT). Please check in then for a special page and for the link to the Cafe, where there will be a vigil. Please take time to remember Erin and her family, and for her family here around the world. Thanks.
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Eternal memory
Posts: 3787 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2001
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
Nicely done, Simon. Seeing Erin's photograph was a blessing.
![[Votive]](graemlins/votive.gif) ![[Tear]](graemlins/tear.gif)
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
We made it work, despite all the glitches, and gave her a true ship-style send-off.
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Simon
Editor
# 1
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Posted
Thanks, Chorister.
Just to note that the photograph was sent to us by Jason Etheredge and used with his specific permission and blessing.
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Eternal memory
Posts: 3787 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2001
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TonyK
Host Emeritus
# 35
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Posted
Great to see the photo, Simon. Thanks
Cafe vigil was good (my first time in there!) despite being 'kicked out' for 10 minutes!
Thanks, Shipmates
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Yours aye ... TonyK
Posts: 2717 | From: Gloucestershire | Registered: May 2001
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Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
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Posted
Though I could only see scattered shipmate avatars, I knew I was in a community of mourners.
And thanks to whoever remembered deuce2. Two years on and the pain is still sharp.
I was at a memorial today for a little boy I helped. He drowned just before Christmas, and this was put on by his class for the whole school (with some adult input). I prayed for Erin there too
Thank you for closing the Boards, Simon.
Pete
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Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
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Ecclesiastical Flip-flop
Shipmate
# 10745
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Posted
I tried unsuccessfully to log-on to the café vigil. I did not know Erin and I assumed she was an elderly person; but the picture of her brought home to me the enormity of the sadness of her great loss. I was even moved to take a print-out of the poster and have it in front of me during this time. RIP
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Joyeuses Pâques! Frohe Ostern! Buona Pasqua! ¡Felices Pascuas! Happy Easter!
Posts: 1946 | From: Surrey UK | Registered: Dec 2005
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St. Stephen the Stoned
Shipmate
# 9841
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Posted
Yes thank you, Simon, and thanks to whoever else arranged the vigil. It was a truly moving experience.
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Do you want to see Jesus or don't yer? Well shurrup then!
Posts: 518 | From: Sheffield | Registered: Jul 2005
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East Price Road
Shipmate
# 13846
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Posted
Thanks to everyone there in the cafe - it was a wonderful hour.
(Even though I got kicked out for a while.)
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"Fishes stop and ask me where I'm bound." (Incredible String Band)
Posts: 739 | From: West Yorkshire | Registered: Jun 2008
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Smudgie
Ship's Barnacle
# 2716
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Posted
Simon, I know that you struggled long and hard with the decision about whether or not to go to the actual funeral, and despite the fact that you know you made the right decision, you probably still feel a sense of unease. I just want to say how special it was that you were there in the cafe for the hour - it made the community feel complete (or as complete as it will ever be again now Erin is no longer with us in person). If others felt the same way as I did, then you can be sure that your decision was a comfort for many people.
It also felt good that, in our mutual loss of one friend, several old friends were brought together again for an hour and happy memories were evoked.
Thank you to those who led prayers.
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Miss you, Erin.
Posts: 14382 | From: Under the duvet | Registered: Apr 2002
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Marvin the Martian
Interplanetary
# 4360
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Smudgie:
If others felt the same way as I did
This other did.
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Hail Gallaxhar
Posts: 30100 | From: Adrift on a sea of surreality | Registered: Apr 2003
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starbelly
but you can call me Neil
# 25
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Posted
I almost cried seeing Erins picture today. Anyone who knows me will know that is quite something.
Posts: 6009 | From: High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. | Registered: May 2001
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
At first I was cross and frustrated that I couldn't see who was posting what. But then I realised that it didn't actually matter. What did matter was that we were taking part in a corporate event, where everyone contributed by being there regardless of who said which parts and who kept silent.
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Zacchaeus
Shipmate
# 14454
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Posted
Sadly I couldn't get into the cafe. But closing the boards seemd so much the right thing.
Posts: 1905 | From: the back of beyond | Registered: Jan 2009
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luvanddaisies
the'fun'in'fundie'™
# 5761
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Posted
Couldn't make it to the cafe vigil today, but it's good to hear that this special community keeps showing that online community can be as real in its way as any other kind - something that does credit to the work and time Erin put into it, and in itself is a testimony to her. So sorry not to have been there.
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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." (Mark Twain)
Posts: 3711 | From: all at sea. | Registered: Apr 2004
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Simon
Editor
# 1
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Posted
Smudgie... thanks for saying that. My heart was in Jacksonville today, but then, whose wasn't? It was a huge privilege to be in the Cafe alongside shipmates old and new, and with one absolute newbie there too – which was especially appropriate.
It was as moving and funny and spine-tingling as any church service I've ever been in, and I wouldn't have missed it. At the end, as we all furiously keyed in (I was going to say "belted out", but it amounts to the same thing) the words of Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah, I couldn't see the keyboard for tears. There was bitter grief and audacious words of hope, but above all there was the healing of togetherness as we remade our community.
I think we've seen that happening all week, as people have posted so movingly and with such amazing thought and eloquence on these boards. We have together been through a rare few days, touched with glory and pain. I'm so glad to have been here this week. It's been a genuine meeting with each other and with God.
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Eternal memory
Posts: 3787 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2001
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Spike
Mostly Harmless
# 36
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Simon:
It was as moving and funny and spine-tingling as any church service I've ever been in, and I wouldn't have missed it. At the end, as we all furiously keyed in (I was going to say "belted out", but it amounts to the same thing) the words of Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah, I couldn't see the keyboard for tears. There was bitter grief and audacious words of hope, but above all there was the healing of togetherness as we remade our community.
I wasn't intending to stay for the full hour as I had an appointment, but I had texted my customer I was supposed to meet at 5pm to say I may be late as I had a feeling I might just hang on til the end.
It was the most amazing thing I've ever experienced here on the Ship. Whenever someone posted a prayer, dozens of people posted "Amen". The hymn singing - well how can anyone describe that who wasn't there? Sitting at my desk, it was awe inspiring to know that I was praying with people from all over the world.
[ 07. January 2011, 23:28: Message edited by: Spike ]
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"May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead" - Irish blessing
Posts: 12860 | From: The Valley of Crocuses | Registered: May 2001
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Spike
Mostly Harmless
# 36
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by starbelly:
I almost cried seeing Erins picture today. Anyone who knows me will know that is quite something.
Same here, but no "almost" in my case
[ 07. January 2011, 23:25: Message edited by: Spike ]
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"May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead" - Irish blessing
Posts: 12860 | From: The Valley of Crocuses | Registered: May 2001
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Wesley J
Silly Shipmate
# 6075
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
quote:
Originally posted by Smudgie:
If others felt the same way as I did
This other did.
Same here.
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Be it as it may: Wesley J will stay. --- Euthanasia, that sounds good. An alpine neutral neighbourhood. Then back to Britain, all dressed in wood. Things were gonna get worse. (John Cooper Clarke)
Posts: 7354 | From: The Isles of Silly | Registered: May 2004
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jlg
What is this place?
Why am I here?
# 98
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Posted
Me too. Thanks, Smudgie, for putting words to what many of us were feeling.
Simon, you had a unique relationship with Erin for all these years. Perhaps one day you'll make another trip to the States and will be able to meet with Erin's family. And it will be a time when they aren't stressed out and overwhelmed with people and funeral and grief.
Given Jason's little "helled" joke and what we know of Erin, I suspect a delayed get-together and story-swap will be a wonderful event.
(PS: If it happens, could you MW it?)
Posts: 17391 | From: Just a Town, New Hampshire, USA | Registered: May 2001
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marmot
Mountain mammal
# 479
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
...What did matter was that we were taking part in a corporate event, where everyone contributed by being there regardless of who said which parts and who kept silent.
A robust internet connection is a rare thing out here. Rather than fight with it and be frustrated, I went back out to Fr. Damien's St. Joseph Church and sat alone, with only the sound of the surf and birdsong for company. I thought of you all communing in various ways, and added my silent contemplation to the ether.
Posts: 2754 | From: The land of Saint Damien | Registered: Jun 2001
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