Linda AKA Meek Passed Away This morning

[Unknown Primate]

This is very sad news.  I'm still very new to this board and learning more about everyone with each visit.  Linda is one of the many people whose posts I really enjoy reading, and her artwork...  my God, she's a talented, special soul.  Rest in peace, Meek.

[raycastile]

Linda was sweet, but also wry and self-effacing. She was part of the soul and character of the UMA.  She outlived her idol, T.E. Lawrence, by only one year.  I can't explain why, but I think she had a feeling something like that would happen.  She seemed like a traveler whose luggage was not packed for a long stay.

She was a gifted artist, as anyone who has seen her watercolor portraits can attest.  For holidays, she sent her friends homemade cards called "Ghastly Greetings."  I think the last one I received had Gwynplaine from "The Man who Laughs" on the front.

When the call for help went out to the UMA troops, Sgt. Meek would always be one of the first to respond.  Andy has posted about how she sent a care package to his daughter in the hospital.  I know that she also sent a box of toys to John Mitchell in Kosovo, so he could pass them out to the kids.

I will miss her mix of warmth and dry wit, a hard combination to pull off.

[CreepyJeff]

I'm stunned beyond words.  My mouth agape reading all this.  She was such an integral, important part of our UMA family.  Rest in peace, Meek.  You will be sorely missed.

[Gasport]

We shared a love of all things Zacherley. She even sent me a duplicate of of one of her wonderful Valentine cards that she sent Zach. She simply was one of those people who made the world a better place just by being here. I only wish i could tell her this in person and hope she can somehow pick up on this outpouring of affection directed at her tonight and all the days that follow. We love you Linda.

[tv horror]

I am saddened to hear of Linda's death, now and again we would cross paths on the Shout and Limerick threads much to my enjoyment.  She will be missed, if at anytime I see a mysterious post full of wit  and charm I'll know who it is because of the laughter in Paradise. Rest in Peace my dear friend, parting is such sweet sorrow. 

[typhooforme]

Last year, I commissioned my friend Meek to do a painting of Ernest Thesiger for me. She did the picture, and found exactly the right frame for it--she was proud of having found just the right "crypt gate" frame! When I sent her this photo recently, she was very happy with it and asked if I'd post it some day. Here it is:


Meek and I met only once--at a Bash con three years ago, which would have been the same one Bobby mentioned  earlier--and we spoke only briefly at the time. I kept hoping she would be able to attend more cons, but it wasn't possible--travel, money, time were never quite right. So we corresponded instead after the con, and more and more during this past year. She was a wonderful, sharp scholar, widely knowledgeable about history and literature. Her great delight in punning was always evident in her UMA posts--she loved a double-entendre wisecrack, any kind of word-play. She was a wonderful wordsmith and used the English language--and sometimes German!--with great facility--and more importantly, with wit. Meek could crack wise with the best of 'em, but she had great heart and warmth, too, and that came through in her writings.

Linda had recently been reading a series of books she'd discovered--THURSDAY NEXT is the name of the series, by one Jasper Fforde--and she had read the first two with great delight. She had just a week or so ago got hold of the third volume, THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS. The series has to do with literary characters (and also ones original with Fforde) involved in a murder case, time travel, sort of a Monty Python wacky world, and some of the characters have wonderful punning names--she named off for me some of the characters: Chalk & Cheese, Dedmen & Walken--and another character named Harris Tweed. She took such delight in reeling off all these silly names in her emails, giving me the funniest ones as she made her way through each book in the series.

It wasn't many weeks back that Meek had got another little china Hunchback--this one from a dealer in Australia, via Ebay--for her collection, and she was planning on making a display in October at the library where she worked--she was going to call it "Bunches of Hunches". Her latest display had been devoted to her friend and idol, Ray Bradbury, and she had asked me to work on a Halloween surprise for him with her. Maybe I'll do it alone for him now, in her memory.

I was always tickled with her take on even the most ordinary things. A couple weeks back, she was talking about how she was getting ready to re-putty the glass in the front windows of the house where he and her mother lived. She wrote: "I'm quite handy with the putty knife--it combines the skills of working with clay and frosting a cake." Only Meek would think of this spin on so prosaic a job of work as puttying windows. She talked about doing the job supervised by her beloved cat, Ralphie Scissorpaws, who watched her through the windows from the inside of the house. She never finished her job. In her last email to me, this past Sunday, she wrote: " Raining today, so it looks like I won't get to finish my putty job on my front windows---like Scarlett O'Hara said 'Oh well, after all---tomorrow is another day.'" Rest well, Linda. You have all the tomorrows forever now.

[josie monster]

 I never even got to know her, but I can see she was a VERY, VERY SPECIAL PERSON who was DEEPLY LOVED.  My heart goes out to her mother and all those who did have the honor of knowing her.

[BARON TIMOTHEUS BGG]

BARON TIMOTHEUS BGG Corporal **** Posts: 378
Re: WARNING:Irish Limericks Ahead
« Reply #306 on: Fri, Sept.19th, AD 2008; 2:35:29 AM »
Dear UMA FANG-MILY,
... As CHARLES DICKENS, once, writ, unto his son: "This life is half made up, of Partings."
I'll post, as I have the time, about our staggering loss, of LINDA; yet, Champion, of our Limerick thread, as she was, I couldn't reserve any subject, save her, for this next offering, as follows:
````````````````````````````````````````````

Comrades, True, cannot be lost; they dwell, BEYOND,
Subtler, than ever, they continue, to respond,
Without our Beloved MEEK,
Our House doth seem, a little bleak,
But, Dear LINDA, BE, at PEACE, Thine Earthly battle, WON.

`````````````````````````````````````````````
EXANIMO EVERNOW,
TIMOTHY FRANCIS MEYER HERRON, BY GOD'S GRACE
Pages: 1 ... 19 20 [21]

[Jim Bertges]

This is so very sad. Linda was a huge part of our lives here and she will be missed terribly. It's impossible to put into words what she brought to us.

[Dr.Terror]

Very sad news.   I had never met her in person, or had many online exchanges, but had it not been for her TCM program reminders I would have missed seeing many classic films.  A thread I made sure I checked daily.

If no one else plans to, I will try to keep that thread going.

[Inkfink]

I followed her TCM threads too. I never knew her but things like that just make life easier. Such sad news. I agree with Prof. Griffin, a special UMA wing should be opened to honor her and her wonderful art. She will be missed!

[fmofmpls]

I am too overwhelmed at the moment to even post. Just received the news this morning. Can't stop crying.

[Mike Scott]

Like many others, I'm shocked beyond words! What a terrible thing to wake up to!

I first heard of Linda (probably 2001?) when the website "Box of Monsters" started posting examples of her great watercolors. I can't believe it was only three years ago that she joined the UMA. It seems like she has been a member forever. She is certainly one of our most beloved members!

It's always so sad when such a talented and nice person dies so young and worse when it's someone you know (if only from posts on a chat board). R.I.P., Linda. We are all going to miss you, a lot!

[The Drunken Severed Head]

No! No! No!

I'm too stunned to talk. I can't believe this. A most generous, talented friend. I am so glad I knew her and got to spend time with her at a Monster Bash and by phone.

Oh, God, I'm gonna miss her.

I am so sad.

[Bogey]

Love and prayers to her family and friends here and else.