From: regan1016@bestsd.sdsu.edu (T. ELIZABETH HARVEY)
Subject: Re: Friends ... forever ...
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1  
Organization: San Diego State University - Dept. of Redundancy Dept.
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 17:45:00 GMT

In article <1992Sep28.132933.1839@samba.oit.unc.edu>, Jack.Smoke@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Jack Smoke)         writes...
>In article <1992Sep27.181354.22341@nntp.uoregon.edu> JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.EDU (Jay Brandt (Thyra)) writes:
>>In article <1992Sep26.161957.6297@cs.mcgill.ca>,
>>braley@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca  (The Didi-Sprite) writes:
[Heart-felt condolences deleted for sake of bandwidth]

> 
>Smoke re-enters the bar.  "I have been asked to speak more fully of
>Arty's death.  I knew he had friends here, but I am surprised at 
>the number and depth of feeling.
>	Thyra, Arty was a Cherokee.  Instead of an Irish wake, lut us
>to the meadow, build a fire, and speak his death."
>	Smoke walks through the french doors and watches the fireworks 
>with aproval.  He gathers wood, building a bonfire, as te stars come out.
>when it is dark, he fires them, and looks arround the fire at Arty's friends.
>	"I have been asked to speak the Dodger's death.  Is there
>any here who would do it instead?" He waits, then resumes.  "The Artful
>Dodger was my friend, my shipmate, and a member of my Clan, and my Tribe.
>He was Wolf clan Cherokee.
>	"We met in the Navy.  Art was the calmest, most professional
>Search and Rescue (SAR) jumper it was ever my privelege to work with.
>He would jump where angels feared to swim - I once saw him pull a bleeding
>pilot out of water where sharks werebegining to circle.  He was kept in
>the navy after his enlistment should ave been up, involuntarily extended.
>On a mission over the northern end of the Persian gulf, he and the crew of 
>Speargun 119, Lt. Lunn, Lt. Mullen, Petty Officer Lopez, and Art, decided
>to make a short detour to pick up the pilot of a downed f-18.  They
>were shot down, and Petty Officer Lopez died in the crash.
>	The other three spent two days in the desert, making the trek back
>to friendly lines.  Arty was returned to San Francisco, and finaly discharged.
>	I lost track ofim for a while, then.  He was studying at the
>University of Arizona, living with a woman, I heard.  He had a hard time 
>finding work.  The woman left him for two otherr men, and he moved in with
>his aged gradmother, taking care of her, and living inexpensivly.
>	His aunt had the grandmother declaired incompitent, and Art took 
>brief trip to California to visit friends.  When he returned, a pair of
>Sheriff's Deputies, sent by the Aunt, were waiting to see that he moved 
>out of his grandmother's house without anything that didn't belong to
>him.  They wouldn't let him take hhis cat, which the grandmother said
>was hers.
>	He was found in a rest stop in Oklahoma with an empty wallet, and 
>an empty gas tank.  He was cremated, and his ashes were spread from
>the top of Sabino Canyon.
>	Among my people it is believed that you can send things to the 
>dead, things that they might need.  I brought with me his flight jacket.
>In the Navy, each flight jacket is individual, different patces, different 
>placements of patches.  Art was proud of his."
>	Smoke tosses the jacket into the fire and sits back,
>watching it burn.
> 
"Thank you so much, Smoke.  I'd like to say something.

You don't know me, because I don't post to alt.callahans.
But I knew Arty.  And I loved him very much.
And I believed that he loved me.  That's what he used to tell me over and 
over until he convinced me.
I met Arty thru a post ... he wondered why his first name (Regan) was in my 
account address.  We started corresponding daily, and then he introduced me 
to HoloMUCK.
Arty was one of the most literate, intelligent, mature, and sensitive men I 
had ever met.  Patient, kind, funny, loyal.  He was a good man, and I 
couldn't help falling in love with him, even though he was in AZ and I'm in 
Los Angeles.  And by the Grace of God, he felt the same about me.
Smoke is correct about the troubles Arty was going thru.  He did feel 
suicidal for a while after his last girlfriend left him.  He detested his 
aunt, who he felt was only after his grandmother's (actually, great-aunt) 
money.  Being a poor student frustrated him.  He told me about his 
experiences in the Persian Gulf, and he came back with both emotional and 
physical scars.
But he also had a great head on his shoulders and a great heart.  He always 
tried to help others and he stuck by his friends.  He said he wanted to 
teach English one day.  He would have made a wonderful teacher.
Ironically, the day we admitted to each other how deep our feelings were 
was the day the King verdicts were announced.  Being with him on-line and 
hearing his voice those first five days were such a comfort to me.
I don't know who else he visited here in California, but he came to LA on 
May 31st, but we spent a wonderful, if imperfect, 27 hours together.  He 
told me he was coming back in mid-July after he attended a Navy friend's 
wedding.  I kissed him goodbye, and waved as he headed back to Arizona, 
where he told me he'd call me when he got home.
Arty  told me that he believed that death was a solution in some cases.  I 
don't believe that.  And with his death, I know it's a lie.  I wish he had 
made just one collect call to me.  I wish I could have been there for him 
when he was so alone.  Now that I know what has happened to him, I pray to 
God that his soul is at peace."

Elizabeth looks into the fire, wondering what she can contribute. "Smoke, 
that was a wonderful thing to do with his flight jacket.  He held it very 
dear to him."  She holds up a holographic black orchid.  "This is the last 
thing he gave me in virtual reality.  He couldn't afford real flowers when  
he came to visit, but I didn't mind at all, since I had him."  Elizabeth 
throws the flower into the fire, and then holds up a teddy bear.  "This 
teddy bear is Albeart Einstein.  He bought it while in San Francisco, right 
before he was discharged.  He said it made a nice companion at night, and 
half-jokingly offered me half-ownership of the bear if I married him.  I 
told him once we knew each other better, I might just take him up on it."  
She cries as she throws the teddy bear into the fire.  "Regan, my love, I 
would have taken you up on that offer.  Wherever you are right now, may you 
always and forever know that I love you."

Please forgive my ramblings.  Thank you so much for the forum, and I'm very 
glad he had such wonderful and caring friends here.

---<--<-{@ | "I believe that before all else, I am a reasonable human being,
Elizabeth  | just as you are -- or, at all events, that I must try and 
	   | become one." _A Doll's House_, Henrik Ibsen
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: mtemplar@redunser.demon.co.uk (Alan Ralph)