Oppem

We lost Oppem on June 23, 2012.  In my quest to learn more, the same words kept showing up over and over-kind, generous, warm, active.    I think KiwiinEngland summed it up the best when she said, "Oppem helped create a giving atmosphere in the forum."

She was very active in various bookrings  the Wishlist Tag group, Birthday RABCK, as well as many of the other things BookCrossers invented to share their love of books.

The Oppem Bookshelf

BookCloud

Bookcloud joined BC in 2007, thanks to her sister MadMadge.  She passed after a brief illness on May 30, 2012.   Since no one knew her as well as her sister, I'll let Madmadge share her with us.

" My sister Bookcloud (Sue) passed away on 30^th May 2011 suddenly and unexpectedly.  She was much younger than me by 12 years so it was a huge shock to me and the rest of the family.  Bookcloud had many interests and many friends. 

                We didn’t always share the same reading interests, but she and I were reading our way through the Peter James’ ‘Roy Grace’ series.  When I e-mailed him to tell him of her passing he replied almost immediately with his condolences.  She loved her books and she has very many on her shelves that she never got around to registering.

                She had lately been undergoing some painful surgery on her feet.  Bookcloud was born with bilateral talipes (otherwise known as club foot), which was operated on when she was a tiny baby.  However, that surgery had broken down and she needed further work to enable her to walk without pain.  She was so brave, despite all the problems she encountered, and was so looking forward to being able to walk normally again.  

                She was a member of a special site which catered for people all over the world suffering from talipes and was in touch with many of them.  She had also campaigned in this country to have the condition recognized by the Department of Work and Pensions as a debilitating condition which warranted a disablement benefit and had heard, only 24 hours before she died, that she had achieved that recognition.

                While recovering from her surgery and being unable to work, Bookcloud had become involved with a wonderful place called Cherry Tree Nursery (otherwise known as SWOP – Sheltered Work Opportunities Project) and worked as a volunteer.  Cherry Tree has been a great benefit to people suffering from mental illness.  Here is a link to the site:  http://www.cherrytreenursery.org.uk/

                I miss my sister very much.  She was always there for me and the rest of the family if any of us needed her.  She had a great passion for life, despite her physical problems, and lived it to the fullest

.

                 She was especially fond of her grandson Ethan and had been collecting Michael Morpurgo books for him so it is good to know that he can read them in her memory.  She loved to read to him and he loved the ritual of the bedtime story.  She was a strong believer in introducing books to children as soon as possible.

                Rest in Peace Sue.  You will never be forgotten."

And I second that.  Thank you so much for sharing Sue with us.

The Bookcloud Bookshelf

NWPassage

We lost NWPassage far too young, in May 2012.  She loved bookrings, and before her illness, she planned to release 50 books a month to clear her shelves.   Her goal was to reach the leaderboard. 

The NWPassage Bookshelf

MrsGaskell

'MrsGaskell lost her battle with ovarian cancer in April 2012.   She had been a member since 2005.  I'll let her friend Gypsysmom share more.

"She had been battling ovarian cancer for a couple of years going through surgery and chemo but smiling and reading all the time. On April 15 she lost that battle and BookCrossing lost a lovely person. She was the first person to catch one of my wild-released books and we became friends thereafter. We had very similar tastes in books and traded a lot of books back and forth. She was very active on the Books forum and started the SIY (Set It Yourself)  quarterly challenges which are still carrying on.

I miss her almost every day."

The MrsGaskell Bookshelf

Joseki

 

Joseki passed away in January, 2012.  Unfortunately, I didn't know Joseki very well.  We had talked on the forums, of course, but I didn't really know him well enough to write something special enough.   So, I turned to our friend, Miketroll, for his thoughts.

"To my regret, I never met Matthew in real life, but his online presence always made me think of him as a friend. He loved to share a joke, but even more than that he was passionate about building a better world. He was enormously intelligent and knowledgeable, happy to talk about life, politics, science, religion with anyone, and always showed respect for others, never treating them with anything less than kindness.

Matthew was a wonderful man. He is greatly missed on the Bookcrossing forum and by his Facebook friends."

Thank you Mike.  I'm sorry that I didn't know him better.

The Joseki bookshelf 

Killimengri

I didn't know Killimengri, so I asked her fellow Irish BookCrosser, Sirroy, to share his thoughts on her.

From Sirroy:  "Our friend Killi was unique. In her own words she said she was a "mad smallholder living on a mountain, miles from anywhere".  She had a small holding with chickens, ducks, geese, horses, ferrets, cats & dogs. She described herself as an occasional artist & designer.

 Killi had three children, one married, one engaged and one living with her who was a truly remarkable and beautiful young lady.

Killi (real name Suzye) had a traumatic and difficult life. She had hemiplegia. She shared stories that would make you shake your head and wonder what was the world coming to. She never complained about any of it.  Her humility and gentle nature shone through everything she wrote.  If support or advice was needed she never let a Facebook, Livejournal or Yahoo post go without a comment or a piece of advice.

Killi was not terribly active in Bookcrossing but somehow she hooked up with the Irish Bookcrossing Group on Yahoo where I think she felt safe amongst friends and kindred spirits. Memorably she joined us on an outing to Cork in February 2007.

Because of her remoteness and lack of basics like TV and electricity it was not unusual not to hear from Killi from time to time.  It was therefore the most enormous shock to us all when we went to post on her Facebook page on her birthday in March to discover that she had died in a house fire on 17th January 2011, only hours after she had posted about going to feed her beloved horses."


Wren again.  From the things I've read and heard about her, I can tell that she was a special person and is greatly missed.


The Killimengri Bookshelf

Oi-reader

We lost our friend, Oi--reader, in November, 2010.  She was a gardener,  an avid reader, and a friend to many other BookCrossers.  I am hearing so many stories of her generosity, strength, and wit.  When she shared her diagnosis with the forum, it was with optimism and courage.  Her battle touched hearts, and many people sent her care boxes to cheer her up.  Jules-Paige shared this note from her, "My fellow BookCrossers have been wonderfully supportive through this. Cards, e-mail, PM's, packages etc often find there way to me at my lowest moments...Thank you for keep me in your thoughts and prayers!"   She touched many lives here and will be remembered with great fondness.

The Oi-reader Bookshelf

N-R-Jyzer

On August 30, 2010, ResQgeek and his wife lost their beautiful, spirited 9 year old daughter, and Purplypup her beloved little sister,  when she was struck by a car while riding her bicycle.  Becky was not yet a very active member of BookCrossing, but she was eager to participate and loved books and reading (in spite of her mild learning disabilities).

Her BookCrossing screen name was N-R-Jyzer, which they chose because she was full of energy and just kept going and going and going..., just like the Energizer Bunny.  She was an outgoing and loving person, someone who never met a stranger and was always ready with a hug for anyone.  She charmed everyone, and even before August, I had heard BookCrossers who had met her in real life mention her joyous outlook and enchanting smile. 

 

She was born on Valentine's Day and her personality was shaped by that holiday.  Her favorite colors were red and pink, and hearts were her favorite shape.  Her tragic death has left a huge hole in her family's lives and in our BookCrossing  community.

 

In honor of Becky and her love of hugs, her family has started a Facebook page called Becky's Hugs, a place to share your hug stories.  They ask that we honor her memory by, well, I can't say it as well as her family, so with their permission, I will just copy what they wrote.

"As a living memorial to her love and life, her family is asking people to "Live her love by sharing Becky's hugs". This page is dedicated to promoting this effort and to sharing stories of how Becky's love continues to spread through the sharing of her hugs. Post your stories about Becky's life and/or how you've lived her love by sharing her hugs or how her love lives on in and through you."

 

The N-R Jyzer Bookshelf 

Pennina

Thanksmom and Pennina had been weekly penpals for several years, after meeting online through BookCrossing. She has written this lovely memorial, and I appreciate her letting me use it here. 

"In Richard Bach’s book Illusions there is a special message about family: “The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.” This best describes my feelings about a friend I met on-line at Bookcrossing yet never met in person. Pennina, or more properly Eleanor or “Candy”, and I had a friendship that stretched beyond many boundaries. She and I wrote weekly letters for over 5 years. Living in different countries, Candy in England and me in the US, and having a 10 year gap in age was never an issue, just differences to be explored. We wrote about friends and family, likes and dislikes, mundane everyday things, and a wide range of common interests that actually required research to expand on. Candy liked to challenge people, which sometimes didn’t work so well in on-line posts but was extremely enjoyable in our correspondence. I miss my friend Candy and I do indeed feel as if she were family. Even if we never managed to sit together face to face I did feel as if we knew each other and my only regret is that our planned meeting in 2010 will now never be."

Pennina was a vital and interesting part of the BookCrossing community, and we miss her there.

The PenninaBookshelf

Bumma

I never got to meet Bumma, but as with so much of BookCrossing, that never seemed to matter. Through her daughter Bookczuk's lovely Bumma Stories, I knew her. And I called her a friend. 

If I had to write one sentence that reminded me of Bumma, it would be, "I came, I saw, I conquered". It's very apt for many areas of her life. She certainly conquered the heart of Eli, her beloved husband and soulmate. It applies to her education, when she accomplished many things in a field many women had yet to conquer. It was true for the medical issues that she dealt with for much of her adult life. And it applies to many of us in BookCrossing. Her wit and charm earned her friends around the world. 

It was a life well-lived. .

Bumma's obituary in the Charleston paper.

The Bumma Bookshelf