Candleight Vigil for Garamet

Damn. I don't even know what to say.

I'd enjoyed interacting with her for... well over 15 years now. Never would have expected this -- it seemed like she was in great health. I guess it's a reminder that our bodies can betray us at any time...

Gonna buy one of her books and fail to burn it, in memoriam.

Don't forget the sapphic footwear.

You should buy it twice!

We argued a lot, but we'd send each other half a dozen private message apologizing, just talking, and then laughing with one another. We'd chat over story ideas for novels I wanted to write, and she'd give me grammar advice. I kind of saw her as the really fun, wise, and doting Aunt I always wanted to have, the one who understood me even when I didn't make sense to myself. @Diacanu told me earlier this evening, and it just broke my heart. I mean, it was a shock, truly. Yeah, she was 71, but she seemed in overall good health. Our last message to one another was that I didn't hold any hard feelings towards her and that I truly did respect and admire her, and her responding to me that she hoped my heart would find what it was looking for someday.

I put it in my signature, but one of the things she liked to say when someone had passed on was "every man's death diminishes me," a line from John Donne's "No Man Is An Island." She got me into reading Donne, and he is one of my favorite poet philosophers. I'm going to dearly miss her presence here.


Garamet, may you rest in peace.

Indeed, may her memory be a blessing.

Damn, just saw this on tbbs.

I didn't know her well but garamet went out of her way to welcome me in here when she didn't need to. She frequently pmd and guided me on the lay of the land, thus avoiding some awful gaffes. Since then she reached out several times to be supportive over real life concerns. I doubt very much I was unique in that regard.

I didn't realise she'd been such a major figure in TNZ too but she'll be missed by an awful lot of people in the trek community.

I once posted a thread back in the dark days of Trump about a good friend having cancer. I'll be arsed to look it up now, but the whole thread was supposed to be analogous of the close relationship between Canada and the United States, and the fact that I was mourning the turn for the worse our good friends to the south had taken.

I didn't know garamet well, but she took the thread literally and reached out to me via PM to see if there was a Gofundme page where she could help my friend out.

It was pretty funny and she took it in stride when I told her, but her actions tell me that she wasn't just some internet persona; even if you disagreed with her (as many of us here did) she was a genuine human being who cared about her fellow people.

Fuck. Just found out. Always enjoyed her posts the last two decades I've been a part of the communities.

Thanks for the shout out at TK Bick. I didn't know her very well, but She was something in her life.

Thoughts prayers and condolences to her family.

I don't know what to say. I always kinda had a dream of eventually getting something more substantial than a poem into print and sending a copy to her. She could be frustrating on here, drawing out discussions into arguments, but you knew she was a good person underneath.

Death date and past tense on Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Wander_Bonanno

Since they all die in threes, who could have called it to be Garamet, Prince Phillip, and DMX?

In retrospect, their "Ride Together, Die Together" mix tape from last year could have been an indication.

Damn you for making me chuckle at that.

Well garamet was from Brooklyn, was she not?

99 reference?

Props if so.

She was, I remember her sharing a story about it. She was called to serve as a juror for the trial of a member of one of the Mafia crime families. She asked to be excused as a juror. When asked why, she said her last name is Bonanno. She was excused. Guess which family had a member on trial.

:-( I've been wondering why she hasn't been sniping at my ankles.

Its great that so many of you have good memories. This reminds me of my sister's funeral last weekend. So many people turning out to say how wonderful she was. And, like my sister, I can only think "guess I was the only one she was such a bitch to."

It's really too bad. We had so much in common, I've never understood why she was so adversarial to me. Her PMs to me, initially, tried to be inviting and friendly, but, ... more often than not, contradicted what she said on the board - this one and TBBS. Perhaps if we'd known each other in real life, I might have understood some of her actions and statements. Sadly, we won't have that now.

*raises glass in general direction of San Francisco* See you in the next life, garamet!

Fuck.

Really sorry to hear that.

This board has enough dead people by now that they could keep a bunch of threads going all by themselves.

Now that I think about it a bit more, that kind of sounds like hell... Garamet, El Chup, Sokar, Muad, Techman and probably a bunch of people who'd hopefully forgive me for not remembering their internet personas at this moment debating the same stuff again and again, in threads spannig all eternity. Probably how Sartre would have set huis clos in the 21st century.

Fuck, I'm just now hearing about this. I liked Garamet quite a bit though I didn't really know or interact with her too much. Always a firebrand for sure, and stuck to her opinions. Sorry to hear about her death, and a true loss for this board and others.

Amazing how quickly it can happen. I came way too close to joining that list a couple of years ago. Being reminded of our mortality is never pleasant, but if it prompts us to be a little kinder to one another and to try not to leave unfinished business lying around maybe that's a good thing.

if you'd crack open a bible now & then you would have seen that this prophecy was about to be fulfilled.

good point! Coming up on three years now since the day I almost bled out. It opened my eyes to how life can go south quicker than we can imagine.
Live every day like it's your last, because some day it will be.

I wonder if stress didn’t play a part in it. She lost Jack in 2019, moved into a new place right before everything locked down. That’s got to be pretty stressful.

To her friends and people who care about her my condolences on your loss.

I figured something bad had happened when she wasn't fighting with me or jenee anymore. Too bad it turned out to be this bad.

No way to know for sure, but you may be on to something. I think the charm of SoCal had worn off for her. She hinted that she was planning to move back to New York.

garamet was from Brooklyn.

Brooklyn 99.

Philip died at 99.

DMX performed at Woodstock 99.

Wayne Gretzky was #99.



Wake up, sheeple!