ewige Freude wird über ihrem Haupte sein

[jade_sabre]

tonight I am listening to the Brahms Requiem.

I talked about it here, back after I'd sung it my senior year of college.

In that post, philia_fan and I had a conversation about it, and she said she was partial to the third movement which, completely coincidentally, is the movement I am on right now.

I am listening to it in her honor.

I found out today that she died on Tuesday. Dr. C. and Wildcat were with her. It was peaceful--no pain, just tiredness.

I've never eulogized anyone and all my attempts have been terrible and failed to capture how awesome Philia was and how many things she'd done in her life (sung fantastic pieces of music, studied linguistics, helped fellow writers, was involved in the World of Theatre, as it were, and Aikido, and Bettine) that I only knew through the snippets she told us about; how her advice in my journal was nearly always timely and wonderfully empathetic; how even through these last few months she's still been going to Aikido and tinkering with writing. I had the pleasure and fun of meeting her for about an hour in Boston two years ago, and we had a great time hanging out and talking about books and Boston, and--she will be missed.

And. well. thank you, internet friends. Sometimes it is hard to explain to other people how I know you, but I know that my life is all the better for having y'all in it. I love you. thank you for being you.

requiem aeterna dona eis domine
et lux perpetua luceat eis