My heart has joined the Thousand.

This may not be mine to do; we hadn't spoken in a while and she hadn't LJ posted in longer but she deserves to have something.


astonish/callings
passed away June 29th, 2011


I don't want to link to the obituary because I don't want to publicly link her real identity to her Livejournal, especially when she hadn't been around LJ for a few years, but I found out through Facebook and confirmed it on checking her local newspaper. Her family have requested that any donations be directed to Houston SPCA.

astonish was one of the earlier writers in tennis fandom. She wasn't around for long but while she was, she wrote some of the most brilliant tennis fic I've ever read; the unfinished On the Road, by heart which was Andy/Roger for my birthday and Six Days which was to fill my Roger/Murray secret prompt (she gave it away by asking me about Britisms while she was writing but it was still the best fic gift to find out for sure that she was my author). I worried about her when Texas had hurricanes and we betaed fic for each other and I never quite believed her when she said she loved my writing, because she was amazing.

I always figured that one day I'd message her on Facebook with "So hey, I'm in Texas!" and we'd meet up for a drink in the Texan sun and remind each other about the early days of tennis fandom. I was always just one distraction away from sending her a Facebook message anyway, just to see how life was going and to tell her I still miss her LJ posts.

I really wish I'd sent that message.

Bye for now astonish. One day we'll go for coffee together in the afterlife and I'll bug you to finish On the Road again, but until then, I'll miss you. You made the world a more amazing place.

♥