A Secondlife Funeral

Most of you out there will have probably known of an internet friend who passes away. Someone whom you never met but who you spoke to, argued with, laughed with and generally had some form of conversation with. You may not have known them other than a name on a board or you have have shared things with them about your real life.

And when that person is not longer there are postings and comments about them and how they'll be missed. I'd known a guy off the Serenity Oz boards who I knew simply as Choccy. I'd met him briefly when he cam down from Sydney once when a group fo the Browncoats got together for a drink. He died of cancer not long after and I believe there's still a dedication thread that has been "stickied" to the top of the discussion groups.

But today was something very different. Today we learnt that the player behind the SecondLife avatar Shucks Valkyrie had died from a heart attack there was an impromptu memorial service held in the cemetery of the Tombstone, Arizona sim, his most recent place to be.



I've never attended a virtual funeral service before. It was odd yet it worked. The sim manager said some words of remembrance and then someone started the words to Amazing Grace. Each line was delivered in chat, completely unprompted, yet there was no duplicating of lines as it was taken up by mourners. Someone even kicked in with a recorded audio version of it.

I only met Shucks a handful of times but he was always having fun and making others laugh. He will be missed.