Yellow Rose's Garden

Memories often sneak up on us when we least expect them to. When answering the meme about "where did you meet me" I recalled meeting or running into many of the folks, that I now share things with on LJ, via an AOL board called Random Thoughts. For those not familiar with it, Random Thoughts was/is an Out Of Character Board for roleplayers. While of diverse opinions with many of them, I found most of those people to be wonderful, intelligent, witty, and talented. There were trolls cropping up from time to time, but you will have this.

One of the people I recall with great fondness, as I'm sure other RTers do, is a man we knew as Heck ... The Stargiver. According to the profile, his name was Don Rice and I think it said he lived in California. Many of us chuckled at the banter between him and a gal named Mary Jane. We learned later that Mary Jane was his former wife.

I received word from someone a while back that let me know he had passed on. I felt a deep sense of loss for a man I never laid eyes on. He was wise, kind, and had a gift for creating images with words that I have yet to see again. He shared his life with us in frequent postings. I think he called them Heckticisms or the Perils of Heck, but I'm not sure. It gave me a sense of peace to see the names of those that had long floated away from RT that had returned to post condolences to his family. I added my own words to them. It was Mary Jane that had left word that he was gone.

In his stories, he told about life as it was for him. The Army, children... marriage.. and my favorite, Migrant Mom. He was, above all, humane; Heck never failed to try to give a kind word even in the midst of angry words being flung about.

I recall reading a post from his daughter, Kathy, after he was gone. She wanted to find her father's writings and read. I hope that she found as much joy, comfort, and enlightenment as many of us did by seeing his words.

He used to give away stars, hence the name Stargiver. There's something very special about looking into the night sky and wondering ... exactly where is the one he picked out for me? I like to think that Heck is now the shining light in one of the stars he loved so dearly.

Here's to you, Heck, shine on brightly, Stargiver.