Well James,
It's been a whole year.
It has been the worst year in a lot of ways.
I have known a couple of people in my life who have passed, but none of them were as good a friend as you have been to me.
I guess it all boils down to this:
I suppose God can wait to see the rest of us, but He just couldn't wait to have you right there with Him.
The Kirkpatrick Twins miss you in Canker Shores.
They were in the office earlier today working on a write up covering your one year remembrance celebration. I found it sitting on their desk, still waiting to go to print. After blotting away the numerous mocha-soy-decaf-latte stains I decided to print an excerpt of it here. I am sure they won't mind...
January 24th, 2007
Canker Shores Remembers Field Correspondant:
The town of Canker Shores is marking the passing of one of their own:
Jim "Zimmy" Zimmerman, who passed away on January 24th, 2006.
"Zimmy" as he was called by the locals, was a long time contributor and field correspondant for the Canker Shores Newspaper "The Shore Throat."
Local business owner, Marv Gillespie recalls, "He was a stout hearted lad who always had a ready hand out stretched to the needy or down-trodden."
January 24th has been set aside by town officials as a local holiday hereby known as "Zimmy Day."
The first celebration of remembrance was marked by an early AM Mass said at Our Lady of Absolute Absolution Catholic Church, with the pealing of the Bells set to commence at noon.
The event was well attended, with the crowd of worshippers filling the church and spilling out into the adjacent parking lot.
Father DuPuis was unable to get the electrical system which activates the bells to function properly, due to damage received during a storm last September so he opted instead to climb into his Chevy Impala and blow the horn 45 times, while the congregation prayed. The battery in his Impala began to wear down after a while, sounding more weak and anemic as it went. He decided to cut the service short at about 37 honks, secretly hoping that nobody was counting.
A community pot-luck was held in the evening at the One Way Baptist Church after which time an impromptu dance broke out in the narthex despite the protests of Elders Wives.
All in all, the day was well spent remembering the young man who touched so many lives.
Zimmy was one of our top correspondants, most noted for his coverage of local crimes and atrocities. His numerous personal writing credits include "Whale Dies", "Poor Santa", and "Sam the Ugly Dog." An archive of his personal works can be found here.
Anyway James,
you are still dreadfully missed - which I know was not your plan for any of us.
It's ok.
I look forward to seeing you again someday.
I suppose by then you be able to find time to tell me whatever happened with that "Mysterious Post."
;o)
Anyway, you are missed.
Thanks for being a big brother.
See ya around, ya goofball.
I never knew Aquilla save his admin posts on the lyst. but what I do remember were all the bad things, and none of the good things. I'm not exactly sure when it was that he acted nice and got people to like him. because clearly several people do. if he was such a nice guy, i'm frustrated why I didn't know it or think so.
ReplyDeleteI dunno he also seems to be a self-righteous conseravtive from the few little posts of his you linked. "I wonder how they're going to blame Bush for this one." Oh god. come on. I hate that stuff. People blame Bush for things, because Bush DOES THINGS! Guantanamo Bay is HIS doing!! The war in Iraq HIS IDEA!! that he pushed to the American People based on faulty intelligence (that apparently he didn't bother checking out as the President of the United States??) O.o
I still haven't seen any reason for why Aquilla is missed so much. But everyone seems to think he was great? But if he was, I don't know why he didn't share it with me. I feel like I missed out somehow. And that's frustrating.
If we are going to memoralize him, I want to memoralize him as the grumpy lyst admin who complained too much about the lyst forums not being used and people posting too many [OT] posts on the regular lyst and not to the Round Table Lyst instead. And if that's the memoralization--then yeah, I know that guy. That's the one. The grumpy one. Yeah I don't miss that he's gone. But I have to respect that he had a tough job as lyst admin and he tried hard and tried his best. And I respect him for that, and I can remember him with respect. I don't think Aquilla was a saint though, and I don't think it's fair to memoralize his memory as a saint. I won't miss a false saint. I may miss a true human being though. :-)
I dunno, those are my (controversial) thoughts. I don't want to hurt your feelings or anything Mih! :-s
~Queue
*who probably said too much*
I've known him for 10 years and for about 4 of those years, he was one of my best friends, second only to Barb who I have known since 1981.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry that you didn't have a chance to get to know him the way some others did.
mih-