Sad news: merle_ has passed away.

[merle_]

[not merle_ posting]

merle_ passed away. He was found by the police on Monday May 13, 2013 after his wife called to say he was missing. He died at home, in his new apartment, apparently while sleeping peacefully

Comments

[oxymoronia]

I am so sorry eryn_.

I hadn't been on LJ for a few years and found out via email this morning.

merle_ was a lovely and witty person. He took me under his wing when I visited San Francisc for a week from Australia a few years ago. We had fun checking out dining spots, exchanging anime, sci fi novels and having generally geeky fun conversations.

Thank you eryn_ for contacting us all to let us know. I am sorry that his family are being unpleasant. As you said in your email, Merle_ wasn't one for tradition or ritual, so having his friends find their own way of commemorating his life would please him.

[eryn_]

Thank you for reminding me to post again, telling people where and when.
Thank you for your condolences.
I'm glad you were one of the people who got an email since you wouldn't have found out otherwise. I emailed everyone in his phone and called the people who I could call, but it's so hard when you don't get to leave a message and have to talk to each sad crying person individually.

[labelleizzy]

Thank you for making this post, Eryn_. I knew Merle through LJ, here, for the last year or so. We'd had lunch and talked two or three times. He felt like a good guy, and I was rooting for him to get and keep the upper hand over his addiction.

I am so sorry for your loss, and so sorry for that unfinished business between you.

Blessings.
Know that you probably have people lighting candles all over teh internets for him.

[eryn_]

Thank you. I am glad he had people cheering for him.

I'd say, since you're local, that we should get together, but Merle has all the charisma and charm. (Yes, he kept them; they weren't inheritable like incomprehensible papers.)

He really needed friends, but, like many addicts, his addiction systematically stripped him of the kinds of people who would have wanted to help.

[grenacia]

I knew merle_ only through livejournal, but I felt like I knew him until I saw this post and realized how little I knew of what was going on in his life. I woke up this morning thinking about merle_ and wrote this post of thoughts about his death and my own life:

http://grenacia.livejournal.com/168528.html

Aside from that, I want to say to eryn_ - you have my sympathy and my empathy. I hope no one is blaming you for his death, least of all yourself. Nearly 12 years ago now, I myself had an experience of letting someone go with the knowledge that he might go off and die of his addictions, which did then come to pass. Sometimes there's just nothing more you can do, no more you can take. :(

[eryn_]

It really sucks. There's this hope for the future that can't ever happen now.... and that died too

[dmnsqrl]

I'm stunned. I haven't been on lj much lately and been busy with other things..... and I stumbled on grenacia's post that she had linked to her fb page. I didn't even know she was another person who talked to him on lj. For a moment I just sat there thinking "maybe... maybe it's someone else with a similar id..." until I followed the link and had to admit it

I'm just... wow....

I am so sorry about the place you are finding yourself in right now eryn_

[eryn_]

Thank you. I really tried to reach everyone, but there were a lot of people who didn't make it onto his phone's contacts list.

I'm really still in denial. I wake up and for just a minute I'm convinced he's off on a trip somewhere.

[ebourland]

Recently I logged in to LJ after some years of not doing so, and discovered this. I'm shocked and deeply sad. Merle's presence on LJ was a delight. I wish I could have met him.

Wishing Eryn and all of his friends a lot of peace and good health, and whatever measure of healing can be found. I am five years late to this conversation.

I love you all. Big hug from Eric