Once there was an imperfect woman.  She made friends and enemies, but had the strength of character to stay true to herself and her God.  We met in the college speculative fiction club, where she had a leadership possition (which officership I can't recall anymore).  It was there that she introduced me to the World of Darkness, which eventually led to the regular gaming which I have done the rest of my life.  Before that I had done some role playing, but usually those games lasted only a few sessions at max before the game would collapse.  Most games lasted only the one session, even if they stories weren't set up as one shots.  Such were my middle school and high school gaming experiences. 

 

She also helped me search for my first job.  She helped me to look through ads, and occassionally would walk with me to job interviews as emotional support.  She invited me to seminary as have other Morman friends, but I never took her up on the offer.  I had already accepted the offer once in high school and felt I had learned enough about the experience.  I had walked her to seminary once or twice while we chatted, so I knew where it was if I ever changed my mind. 

 

In fact, she used to talk about this SCA gentleman know by the nickname of Figment alot.  She discussed him as a matter of irritation, so for fun once I named one of my vampire characters Figment to play upon that irritation.  My character Figment would eventually grow to be one of the best characters I would have the opportunity to play, and come out from under the shadow of the original Figment who was his namesake. 

 

Eventually she was politically outmaneuvered by another woman who wanted to be the alpha female of the World of Darkness gaming group which had spun out of the Cyberwyer club.  So, while I didn't game with her we still kept in touch on campus until she finished up taking classes.  I think she stopped by the campus one or two times after that.

 

A few weeks back DeAnne mentioned knowing Figment, the same someone who had annoyed this woman back in the day.  So I asked her if she knew my friend, and it turned out that she had married him!  I had asked DeAnne to say, "Hi," for me and to see if my former club mate would be interested in getting back in touch with each other.  Well, yesterday I got the call from DeAnne that my old friend passed away in the morning. 

 

I owe a lot to this woman, and I don't know whether she ever knew how much I appreciated that. 

 

RIP Marcella Chapman, 1973-2004.