Good God.
What to say?
I mean...
I just don't know.
Heartbreaking. 
What happened?
Jen --
Article updated.
I'm sorry to hear about Melanie. In the meantime, BushCo continues to wallow in a poignant moral bankruptcy that says so much about where we are as a society these days.
Karl Rove has just fled the country after being subpoenaed by Congress.
Jesus....
And remember: Health care companies make money by NOT insuring the people who most need the insurance.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, this is just so sad....
Tragic news. Condolences to her family and loved ones.
Wow,
I am so sorry for the pain that you are feeling Doc, and saddened by the suffering that your friend went through. Now I know why her page had not been updated in so long.
It is truly a tragedy that she died so young, I wish we did have universal, single payer health care so that there would be less needless death and suffering
Condolences to her family and friends.
One thing that really drives home the fact that the USA is a plutocratic oligarchy disguised as a republic is the fact that we're probably the only remaining nation in the industrialized world that doesn't have some form of nationalized health-care. (Though it also doesn't help that driftglass's "pig-people" don't want African Americans and Hispanics to have access to health care.)
holy f-ing sh-t, not her...
She was such a lovely blogger and commenter, this is so sad.
All my condolences to her family and friends.
my very sincere condolences to family and friends. she will be missed deeply.
she was a tireless supporter in the fight, we will miss her rifle.
I had been wondering what happened to her... *sigh*
as my friend terri in tokyo would say,
"will everyone please just stay alive."
take care of yourselves.
our love and condolences to her friends and family.
Aw jeez.
I loved her writing.
So it goes.
Condolences to those she loved and those who loved her.
Didn't know her, but if you folks speak for her, then I got a big ole HUZZAH and KAPLAH for her and her passing.
Sorry to all for the loss, family, friends and bloggers all . . .
We keep losing them . . . but it's inevitable as we grow older, too . . .
WE lose even the YOUNG one's, in our lives.
It's how it goes . . and bless Melanie.
And her voice . . . . like Steve's, it's blessed, no?
Bless them all . . . sigh, words fail . . .
larue, Marek, and everyone else --
Thank you deeply for your kind words about my dear friend.
Your generosity of spirit is appreciated more than I can say.
Truly, it is more than I can say. All day, every time I've tried, I cry hopelessly. Instead of trying again, just, thank you.
Thank you for thinking of Melanie.
Condolences.
crying with you Jesse, and with us all.
for Melanie, and all of our beloved ones, known and unknown, we fight on.
Bugger! Bugger, bugger, bugger!!!
Exchanged a couple of emails with Melanie.
I was wondering what had happened over the last few months.
Loved her cat, her music and her writing.
What a crappy state of affairs.
Very sorry to read the news.
I have known, since not long after, that Melanie died. I chose not to comment until now, as I think there are those that plan us a short time of it, and further chances are few.
We cyber dated around 2003 or 2004 for several months, and never in "Meat Space" as Melanie enticingly called it. She enjoyed my poetry in English & German. She would rattle off high end gourmet recipes. I would tell her about my now deceased "Teacher Man", Frank McCourt. We spoke until late many nights, though I was ill then. She smoked and wheezed drawing for breath. Were they Virginia Slims or Marlboro (Ultra) Lights? She'd sigh at my poetry until I had to hit the sack. She said her dad was a Freemason, she was a Unitarian minister and played bassoon in an orchestra before. I liked her nerdy passions somewhat overlapping and complimenting mine. My divorce would drift out of my consciousness, and I began to relax. I told my recent girlfriend we should cut out smoking based on Melanie's death, and my concerns for her own health.
Melanie would go on about Pogge, her history with DailyKos, and especially her FluWiki mostly since H5N1 was gaining steam. I never called her to mention the former Gilead drug company CEO Donald Rumsfeld's big money stock sale preceding announcement of the inefficacy of Tamiflu against emerging strains. We'd commiserate over BushCo.
I'd mention 9-11 inconsistencies and she'd recommend Snopes.com ... Didn't like that much as I was forming educated strong opinions based on my own eyes witnessing, friend's firsthand experiences, news reports, MSM vs independent media and the rich wild west of the newly named blogosphere. She did throw PNAC out to me on the other hand. A friend who attended my wedding was on on Flight 93 so I guess I was a bit sensitive, though we never argued about any of it.
I turned her onto Clusty.com search engine which she loved a good deal, as well as NameBase.org for social network proximity charts based on name indexes of books.
Without warning one night while we complimented each other's fine minds over talk of wine, good food, literature and family histories, I heard a crash like breaking glass or something falling on a glass table on her end and then silence. I called out again and again but no answer. I hung up and called back, but the phone was either off the hook or busy for at least two hours or so. Concerned, I fretted over what to do, should she be injured or in need of help. Finally, I called the Falls Church cops, and they climbed a fence I think and entered from the back of the house. Melanie had apparently just fallen asleep mid sentence. She was in bed and nude when she awoke to an alien abduction scene of police shining a flashlight into her eyes.
Melanie was not angry with me at all, but at the cops, proclaiming to me "Welcome to the NWO!" She actually thanked me for being so concerned as to call those nasty intrusive police who got to see more of her favorite physical attribute than I ever would. I thought that it would be a deal breaker myself. I still can hear her cooing praise for what I thought was simple idiocy on my part.
I will always think of her in bed in Falls Church drifting off with a good book, and no cops around to read her bedtime stories or share her stockpile of gourmet MRE's (Meals Ready To Eat) for when the big influenza pandemic would arrive and services food supplies, meds and water would run short.
Some guy had just recently dumped her, was it via email? Melanie had been married before that for some time. She was wary I suppose, and so perhaps for that reason never showed up in the NYC area to meet (meat) me. She had me relishing in details of things we would do and she would do to me. Not to be. I was no less disappointed than a kid told his birthday or Christmas had been canceled. Melanie actually missed her third promised trip. She said she would understand if I could not deal with it. I wrote her some half angry, but mostly heartbroken drivel probably laced with a poem, and never contacted her again.
I never knew about her pancreatitis, though she mentioned a sort of injured arm and back troubles, maybe something about a heart problem, but I can't recall now. She wanted to know if it was OK with me. I had no qualms, as I myself was in poor shape then. A low impact lover would have indefinitely suited me fine then.
Rest well Melanie. You were a pleasure to write with, speak with and to wish for meeting in "Meat Space". To be even a fraction as prolific in accomplishment as you, I'll try.
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