Goodbye Zach

Today Kali posted a note that saddened many of us.

(1033) Kali 03/24/15 Zach

Recently we have learned that the Realms of Despair has lost one of its young
bright stars. The family of Zach has contacted the immortal staff, as well as
some of his mortal friends who reached out, to let us know that Zach has
passed away. Zach has been a long and devoted player of the Realms.
He recently joined the immortal ranks and inspired us with his enthusiasm and
vigor for bringing positive changes to the game for his fellow players. We
are sad to have lost a vital player, but more importantly, we are
devastated to have lost a good friend and a good person.

As a tribute, we are promoting Zach to level 56, True Immortal, at which point
we will move him to retired status. As a lasting tribute, the pedagogic
spirit in the Umbrageous Ruins will be renamed to the pedagogic spirit of Zach
so that he may teach and train all those would follow his ways. In this way
his memory will live on.

I don’t have a lot to say.  It is always sad when we lose someone from our community.  Some of us have been through this before, I’ve written about losing Marie years ago.  Some of us keep a distance online, even me not that you’d know.  When people quit playing without a word I know that some of us used to worry a lot about what happened to them and I think because of that a lot of us put up that distance.  “Realms friends”.  When 9-11 happened we lost players, one of them was a long time Guild of Druid person who we all presumed died, she resurfaced a couple years ago, alive but needed to totally walk away from everything in their life for a long time before being curious about Realms still being online.

It’s a hard subject.  I think lots of us struggle with appropriate ways to deal with our feelings in the first place.  I encourage you to reach out to the people around you and let them know you appreciate them.  If they’re off game/on game, doesn’t matter.  In the age of Facebook a lot more of us are staying connected.

To my Realms comrades: to the people I adventure with, the people I share my evenings and stories with – thank you for being there.

Good bye Zach – our community is diminished by your loss.  The PK community has lost a stalwart advocate, a tireless recruiter and a valued teacher.

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