I will miss you so much, Rachel. I love you. You helped me a lot with your insights, and words of affirmation and understanding, especially when I was having relationship dramas all those years ago. I appreciate all that you are. You're at peace now, love, and no longer in pain. Vale, my friend. 🩷

Over the years, as social media/comms platforms changed, from IRC and early LiveJournal to Facebook, Twitter, and Threads, we still stayed in each other's lives, even though we'd drifted apart as the years passed. She was the most beautiful soul you could ever hope to know.

She called out my name when she got close enough to recognise me, as I was looking elsewhere. I was struck by her beautiful voice. We spent the day together, just talking and walking around. We weren't that close, but she still invited me to her wedding in 2012. It was gorgeous.

I'll never forget her. We'd known each other since 1999, meeting on IRC, but lived in different states, so only met for the first time in person in about 2002, at a Melbourne shopping centre. I'll never forget that day - she was going down the escalator, and I was going up the escalator next to it.

Yep. The misogyny, racism, and transphobia are a feature, not a bug.