Location: Area just west of the Red & Purple Pant Shop & Garden Center.
Forgive me. This is difficult.
On 14th of December 2019... just before this last Christmas, my best friend in the whole world passed away after a few months battle of very bad health. Her name was Blossom and she was with me from my first year of play, when I was still learning the system and working out skills, before the first independent Red & Purple Mini Mall building. This was 2002. I just passed my 18th anniversary. Blossom suffered from epilepsy, grade mall seizures... since she was a year old. By amazing coincidence, I had the same condition that started after a car accident (due to an airbag) when I was 23 years old. Something so very personal, to have in common, in a world FULL of little things in common such as the magical world of Ultima Online? She was with me every step of the way, these last 17 years... almost 18.
I’m sure everyone reading this has people who ask questions about the very nature of UO. It's an adventure game... that you can share with anyone over the entire planet. Friendships have no limit that way. Just that one fact seems to blow people’s minds. To me... that is true magic. It doesn’t matter what state someone is in or what nation, we start off having the game in common. Then it may be our skills... or lack of skills. A need to explore the lands and find a way to fund our adventures. I’ve had friends in the UK, Germany, Australia, Japan... and many in Canada... all with my being right in the USA. A friend could be next door, in the next town. You just never know. That is the magic of UO.
The really sad thing is that these friends can simply vanish one day and you never know what happened. Most of the time, life gets too busy for online play. Some, like another UO-connected friend Jessica, simply went to bed one night and never work up. It took me almost 10 months to find out what happened to her. Like me, she owned an establishment but on Pacific. Or in the case of the real origional Goodman... he willed his empire to a friend and the kingdom continues and grows. In rare cases, you know a UO-connected friend will enough that you touch each other’s lives even closer... and know the end is coming... and take part in that final service. The heart is never the same again.
Then, I’m highly thankful we have a program that allows our fallen UO-connected friends to be remembered right with the same play-world they enjoyed for so many years. On 19th January 2020, with thanks to our Event Moderator, we placed a new Memorial Stone for Blossom just at the edge of the town where she spent countless hours. Within an hour, a few people came over to check it out. I wanted to wait a little before posting the news to insure Mesanna approved. Just the same, I think this is a wonderful program as some of these players that vanish without a trace and their house and everything they worked for vanishes back in to the nothingness it came, they will have a small something that will carry their name for the rest of days of this world. This stone marks the 3rd connected to our town. Isn’t a day that has passed I notice her missing... and now... everyone can see.
The marker reads:
In Loving Memory of Blossom
The Bestest of Friends
14 December 2019
Heaven Has Gained a New Angel
Forgive me. This is difficult.
On 14th of December 2019... just before this last Christmas, my best friend in the whole world passed away after a few months battle of very bad health. Her name was Blossom and she was with me from my first year of play, when I was still learning the system and working out skills, before the first independent Red & Purple Mini Mall building. This was 2002. I just passed my 18th anniversary. Blossom suffered from epilepsy, grade mall seizures... since she was a year old. By amazing coincidence, I had the same condition that started after a car accident (due to an airbag) when I was 23 years old. Something so very personal, to have in common, in a world FULL of little things in common such as the magical world of Ultima Online? She was with me every step of the way, these last 17 years... almost 18.
I’m sure everyone reading this has people who ask questions about the very nature of UO. It's an adventure game... that you can share with anyone over the entire planet. Friendships have no limit that way. Just that one fact seems to blow people’s minds. To me... that is true magic. It doesn’t matter what state someone is in or what nation, we start off having the game in common. Then it may be our skills... or lack of skills. A need to explore the lands and find a way to fund our adventures. I’ve had friends in the UK, Germany, Australia, Japan... and many in Canada... all with my being right in the USA. A friend could be next door, in the next town. You just never know. That is the magic of UO.
The really sad thing is that these friends can simply vanish one day and you never know what happened. Most of the time, life gets too busy for online play. Some, like another UO-connected friend Jessica, simply went to bed one night and never work up. It took me almost 10 months to find out what happened to her. Like me, she owned an establishment but on Pacific. Or in the case of the real origional Goodman... he willed his empire to a friend and the kingdom continues and grows. In rare cases, you know a UO-connected friend will enough that you touch each other’s lives even closer... and know the end is coming... and take part in that final service. The heart is never the same again.
Then, I’m highly thankful we have a program that allows our fallen UO-connected friends to be remembered right with the same play-world they enjoyed for so many years. On 19th January 2020, with thanks to our Event Moderator, we placed a new Memorial Stone for Blossom just at the edge of the town where she spent countless hours. Within an hour, a few people came over to check it out. I wanted to wait a little before posting the news to insure Mesanna approved. Just the same, I think this is a wonderful program as some of these players that vanish without a trace and their house and everything they worked for vanishes back in to the nothingness it came, they will have a small something that will carry their name for the rest of days of this world. This stone marks the 3rd connected to our town. Isn’t a day that has passed I notice her missing... and now... everyone can see.
The marker reads:
In Loving Memory of Blossom
The Bestest of Friends
14 December 2019
Heaven Has Gained a New Angel
