Rest in Peace, Diva

I have the thread on my computer -- too long to copy and paste here, and I'm not sure where to upload it for viewing. Any ideas?

(It's called "NYC ABUZZERS....YOU OKAY???", haven't found it via Google or the Wayback Machine either -- don't have the url for it.)

Here goes -- just text, no formatting.

http://sitekreator.com/Rendezvous/divas_911_thread.html

(Diva had many names including "Diva" and "Eurodiva," at some point she changed her name to just a period ["."], and that's how it appears on the thread I saved.)

Thank you so much, Sozobe. What a thread, independent of Diva's death!

I just talked to TsarStepan on the phone again. He's doing just a little better today, and he gave me an update on two points:

1) The fatal blood clots formed in Diva's leg and moved up from there into her lung. That's where they killed her.

2) Diva's body will be cremated. The funeral service is Saturday, the 16th, from 11 am to 1 pm, at Krtil Funeral Home Yorkville, 1297 1st Avenue. (That's on 1st and East 70th.) You're all welcome -- If you're interested in attending, please PM me so I can give you Diva's full real name to make sure you can find the service.

Squinney -- on rereading, I think I brushed you off too harshly about the thrombophilia. A better answer to your question would have been this: Throughout the eight years that I've known her, Diva has never specifically complained to me about any problems with blood clots. She had a general tendency for her health to deteriorate under stress, as do we all. And this recession put her business in trouble, placing her under plenty of stress. But these generalities aside, this sudden death at age 38 is coming way out of left field. (Not age 39 by the way -- my arithmetic was messed up yesterday, as was the rest of me.)

I lost track of Diva from some reason -- I was on the Den for about a year in the film topics. She was fabulous Sorry to hear the sad news.

Oh, Thomas, this is so sad. I'm sorry you've lost your friend. I remember her from Abuzz and will definitely re-read the 9/11 posts that soz linked to.

I only found this thread just now (and via your facebook entry, Thomas).

I'm really sad to hear this. I've exchanged quite a few emails during Abuzz times, but unfortunately lost contact later.

May she rest in peace.

Checking in...hoping Thomas is ok...and also thinking of Rob.

Ask Craven if he could create a forum or a site for it here on A2K. Then everyone can read it and even post comments about it.

Thanks for asking, Deb.

I guess I'm doing fair, considering. I feel okay when I'm going or driving places with my parents and don't think of Diva. I also feel okay when I deliberately do think of her. Today, for example, I started going through our old e-mails, collecting things I might say at her funeral. (This will be my first funeral in America, so I'm not sure what to expect; I'm preparing for the case that her funeral is going to be one of those where friends and family go to the pulpit one after another and say a few words about the deceased.) That felt okay, too.

But the fleeting reminders of Diva and her passing, they still overwhelm me.

It was hard to pass a Chanel store as I walked down 5th Avenue with my mother. (Diva admired Coco Chanel, the person, knew every product Chanel the company ever made, and loved most of them.)

It was hard to see a Husky on the street. (Diva owned a feisty Husky by the name of La Neige. I wonder what will become of La Neige. She's getting old, and will have trouble adapting to a new owner.)

It was hard when my mother asked about the best place to buy a particular New York Souvenir, and I instinctively answered: "Gee, I'm not sure. Hang on a sec, I'll call and ask Mar... oh, never mind."

It was hard when my cell phone rang, I saw Diva's name on the display, smiled as I always do when that happens, and then recognized it was TsarStepan calling from her cell about the funeral.

And it's hard right this minute: Remember when I said Diva adored Coco Chanel? She was one of Diva's four big role models. The other three were Marlene Dietrich, Madonna, and -- who was the last one again? I ought to ask Diva some day.... Oh, never mind.

So that's how I'm doing today.

Just wrong, isn't it?

I was missing on abuzz for the entire beginning years, I guess the middle, and even part of the end. I'm not sure of my dates there, but abuzz was important to me.

I had my own 9/11, both the new york horror, and my own, which was a positive breast cancer biopsy that exact day. (I was a kid in New York, my 9/11 day not just about the bc. My gyn - who directed me to the biopsy - had a good friend in the towers.)

When I got back home, and perhaps before that, my internet connection to abuzz was out for a long time, and I behaved rather nutsy, with people I emailed saying and then yelling cookies at me and keith never ever answering. I do think I accepted cookies all that time. I didn't get back in for months - when I needed community, as they call it.

So I missed the daily postings, and Diva's thread, though I'm not sure I didn't see it, maybe early in 2002.

I've some reading to do.

Roberta, MsOlga, Phoenix, Setanta, Miller, Light Wizard, Mac, Walter, and Ossobuco -- thanks!

Miller -- thanks for the suggestion, but I think Sozobe's link will work just fine.

Oh, Thomas.
A post to remember.

I am sorry for your loss, Thomas. It is always very hard to lose a dear friend,
and someone this young, it's even harder to grasp. My sympathies to you and
her family.

Diva loved Eloise. She was EloiseSouth, I was EloiseNorth.

There were some things that only Diva understood when I posted them.

"room service, please"

I didn't know that, ehBeth -- that's sweet!

I have to confess I never read Eloise, although she warmly recommended it. But we had a few conversations that only Manhattan-imprinted brains will "get" immediately. Here's a two-sentence snippet from the last time we had lunch together, just before I took a taxi to LaGuardia for my trip to San Diego to Portland to Albuquerque.

Diva: "Excuse my ignorance, but just where in the West is Albuquerque?"

Me: "Oh, it's on interstates 40 and 25."

Diva: (just nods)

Moral of the story, for readers without Manhattan-imprinted brains: Every place in the world can be located on a rectangular grid of streets, or else it isn't worth locating.

(and that makes me feel connected to Diva..)

tsarstepan has now started a thread on Diva:
http://able2know.org/topic/132380-1#post-3650670

hey!
I was gonna do that!
http://able2know.org/topic/132380-1

youyouyouwandelyou!

He's quick, that one.