The emma Memorial Thread

[RJDiogenes]

We had something there called the hug threads, which started out as daily virtual hugs for a member going through a rough time.  

That's actually where I met her, in Rae's thread.

She posted there often, so I heard all about her adventures: pictures of birds and bunnies, trips to the desert, Jim & Leo etc...

One of my favorite memories of her is when she told me that she was inspired to get back into photography when I posted a picture of a bunny. I also have some pictures she took of Leo that I can post. Poor little guy was very old and sick when she sold her house and moved into assisted living-- that's one of the things that I'm glad she forgot.

(I have been posting at Exisle for so long, that my fingers want to automatically type all her favorite smilies. But the smilies are all different here! )

One of the EI Smilies is actually named after her.

Anyway, a while ago I started writing stories of all my favorite interactions with Nonny.  So far I've written what I am calling the first chapter. When it's finished, I promise I will post it here too!

Yes, please do. I'd love to see that.

Some pics from my collection (posted from Postimage so they won't disappear).

Those are great. I've seen a couple of them before, but I don't think all of them. She looks so happy and healthy then.

[RJDiogenes]

Everybody's probably already seen this on Facebook, but here is emma's video:

https://youtu.be/F1vZz2TTZ_w

And here she is showing off her Air Force cap:



And her patch:



And here's her old friend Leo:

[scottydog]

Really great pics and a very moving video of the service. Thanks, everyone

[Madeliaette]

thanks for sharing the pics....does anyone know how far along Emma got with writing her biography? being a bunch of writers hereabouts, maybe we could take it over and complete it for her....just an idea....

[Lupine]

^I was wondering about her book myself the other day.

[RJDiogenes]

As far as I know, she never did any more work on her biography or her novel. Kent has a backup of her hard drive and he's going to send me copies of all her writings, so I should know shortly. The only thing I know of that she completed was a movie script, which I have a copy of, so I can post that later for anybody who is interested.

[Madeliaette]

im more interested in fact than fiction - i think her autobio would be fantastic tribute to her if we could write an intro/conclusion and self publish it.....

[RJDiogenes]

I posted emma's screenplay, Geezer Teenagers in Love, for anybody who is interested. I put it in the Writer's Club so that it won't be visible to non-members. Since I'm still her sole beneficiary, it's up to us to take care of it now.

im more interested in fact than fiction - i think her autobio would be fantastic tribute to her if we could write an intro/conclusion and self publish it.....

Hopefully there will be a lot of stuff that we can include once I receive her files.

[huggle]

The old version of Exisle is gone now, along with everything she posted there, though I did manage to save some threads via archive.org, including the hug threads. (Huggle made a new version of EI for us to post at.  I am still hoping there is a way to restore something of the old board from backups. )

If you have any threads saved from EI, please mail them to me. I could set up an archive section on EI and repost them there. I think there might perhaps be some screenshots of the old EI on the internet archive. This might enable us to repost more material.


Disclaimer: The following might possibly annoy those with a military background. Please keep in mind that it's simply the honest feelings of a civilian who has never experienced war nor even ever has seen a weapon up close.

I'm very sorry that I never got a chance to meet Emma in person, or Nonny rather, under which name I got to know her waaay back on Slipstream and then on ExIsle. I do believe she even was a member at KHCMB and GMWMB (Keith Cobb's and Gordon Wolvett's boards, respectively). Online, she sounded like a very interesting woman. Sometimes desperate - which of us doesn't have these moments? - but with a basic courage that showed even in very dark times and with a sense of humour that was perfectly indestroyable.
I understand that she was in the military but nevertheless she was a very warm and friendly person. I'd never have imagined that both can actually go together since being merciless is basically in the job description of a soldier. You can't have a war when your warriors offer an injured opponent a band aid or pity those whos houses they are ordered to destroy with bombs. Yet, fascinatingly, Emma appears to have managed to do this emotional split. I would very much have liked to discuss her experiences and learn about how she became the person she was.

Thank you to everyone for posting photos and her stories. This gives me a chance to get a bit closer to her.


A technical question strikes me: why took it half a year for her to get the ceremony and the burial? Is that customary in the Airforce or was it delayed by Corona?
Just curious because here in Germany it usually takes 48 hours, or in case of a cremation 5-14 days. We'd consider it impious to leave a person unburied for a longer time. It's even forbidden by law. We also aren't allowed to keep the urn at home or sprinkle the ashes into the sea or on the ground; it must without any exceptions be buried in a cemetry. That's both for hygiene and to prevent human remains from being treated disrespectful.

[RJDiogenes]

I'm very sorry that I never got a chance to meet Emma in person, or Nonny rather, under which name I got to know her waaay back on Slipstream and then on ExIsle.

I wish everybody could have met her in person. She was very sweet and she really loved it here at ReNext and at Ex Isle.

I understand that she was in the military but nevertheless she was a very warm and friendly person.

Well, for one thing, emma was an avionics mechanic. She never served in combat or was trained for combat. She served back in the 70s before women were allowed to fight.

I'd never have imagined that both can actually go together since being merciless is basically in the job description of a soldier. You can't have a war when your warriors offer an injured opponent a band aid or pity those whos houses they are ordered to destroy with bombs.

Actually, the best soldiers do have compassion (and the best of those become the leaders). And a good soldier will also not follow illegal orders. That's why the coup in the Soviet Union failed, and why the Joint Chiefs prepared themselves to disobey Trump when he refused to concede the election. It's also why so many Russian soldiers have deserted to Ukraine.

Thank you to everyone for posting photos and her stories. This gives me a chance to get a bit closer to her.

You're welcome. I should post more. I've got plenty.

A technical question strikes me: why took it half a year for her to get the ceremony and the burial? Is that customary in the Airforce or was it delayed by Corona?

Corona may have contributed-- I'm not sure about that. But mainly it was because of a shortage of honor guards. There are so many veterans that there's a backlog. But she was cremated right away.

We also aren't allowed to keep the urn at home or sprinkle the ashes into the sea or on the ground; it must without any exceptions be buried in a cemetry. That's both for hygiene and to prevent human remains from being treated disrespectful.

That's interesting. It is legal to do those things here. I would have been happy to give emma's remains a home, but it was her dream to be buried at the Riverside Military Cemetery.

[RJDiogenes]

A little late, but here are more pictures of emma. My Avoidance Behavior Syndrome gets worse and worse as I get older.













She was almost always wearing her cap or her pin or her coat, or some combination. That last one is obviously not one of those, but it was just an outfit that she liked. And the first picture is at the restaurant that gave free pizzas to veterans on Veteran's Day. She loved that.

[scottydog]

A little late, but here are more pictures of emma. My Avoidance Behavior Syndrome gets worse and worse as I get older.

She was almost always wearing her cap or her pin or her coat, or some combination. That last one is obviously not one of those, but it was just an outfit that she liked. And the first picture is at the restaurant that gave free pizzas to veterans on Veteran's Day. She loved that.

Thanks for posting these. It makes me happy that she had a friend like you who looked out for her best interests when she became unable to do so herself.

I'm also glad that she had all of us to turn to and share with back in the mid to late 2010

[RJDiogenes]

It's both nice and sad. She loved it here, but life took us away from her-- but the fact that she was our friend probably helped her live a longer and safer life when she got sick.

And I just noticed that I posted some doubles there. I've got many more to post, though.

[scottydog]

I really treasure that photo of me and emma taken at the Greek restaurant we went to back in 2016. At the time, I thought it was no big deal having dinner with her, but now I realize how important it was to us both.

[RJDiogenes]

That's a great picture. She looks really nice. That would have been when she was pretty much recovered from her little stroke from the previous Christmas (which hadn't even been diagnosed yet), and the first big stroke, which was in late November 2016. A lot happened in the next five years.