[Remembering Terry]
This is something I wrote four years ago, but it still resonates with me now. Four years on and having recently returned from another successful Llamedos Holiday Camp where we all spoke Terry's name, with gusto, love and joy there is still sadness but not tears. Another anniversary, but still his name is spoken, and for that I am filled with joy. GNU Terry, mind how you go.
Five years ago today...
Great A'Tuin stopped swimming, the clacks were silenced, the rimfall froze as the inhabitants of the Disc became adjusted to the realization that something in the fabric of the universe had fundamentally changed.
I like to think that, after that briefest of moments, the people of the Disc shook themselves down and got on with their daily tasks with a strange but undefinable sense of loss.
For me I never got to grieve. The phone calls and the emails came in and TV and radio interviews happened, we dealt with a fandom in mourning and never stopped to process our own grief.
And then, five years on, just coming down from an amazing weekend at the first Llamedos Holiday Camp with 150+ friends both new and old the tears have come. I'm sure it's a combination of post event blues and complete exhaustion but I cant stop right now.
I miss you Terry and all the amazing characters you created. I hope that somewhere in a second hand set of dimensions all the denizens of the Disc are once again pausing to reflect on what you gave them.
You'll never know how much you gave me, at one point this last weekend, standing on that stage looking out over all the mad loonies that I call friends I realised how rich my life is. And I thought how many of my friends did I know before Discworld and I realised that for the last quarter of a century you allowed me find my tribe.
Bless you Terry, #mindhowyougo, #speakhisname