Very sad news re. Just a Bag of Atoms

[snifferdog]

I got the very sad news that Marti (justabagofatoms) has died.

The older posters here will remember Marti from her distinctive and often very funny style of posting. Through this forum she became friends with quite a few of us lot. We got to know the warm, funny, quirky, inspiring, generous and unique woman behind the username. When the word came through this morning about what had happened, it was striking to see how many friends from here she had and how many lives she had touched in different ways.

Like everyone else here I never met her but somehow I just knew that if I did, that we'd have gotten along famously and laughed our sides sick. I'm genuinely saddened at the news and my heart goes out to her family and friends. Death is never an easy thing to deal with but it's especially cruel when it happens out of the blue to someone who was still too young.

RIP Marti. I'm sorry you never got around to sending me that glass....

[MY RRRRS]

she was one in a million

[oz1701]

we became great friends over the years and i will miss her refined sense of humour and kindness.

[boo]

i haven't been "here" as long as many of you, but marti and i became fast friends on the forum and continued that friendship over the phone many times. we laughed till we cried on many occasions. what strong life-force she has been...and how many lives she has touched. i'm still stunned at this saddest of news.....and though we hadn't spoken in a while, i miss her already.

[ddebil]

To be greeted by this tragic news this morning was just awful. Marti was one of my early NPF buddies and we exchanged many bizarre e-mails in subsequent years - interesting, but definitely bizarre - Marti did bizarre very well!
I tried to stay in touch with her on Facebook, but I get the impression that Fb wasn't particularly for her (and forgetting one's password certainly didn't help). We kinda lost touch over the last couple of years but I often thought of her and wondered how she was doing. I missed her then and I'm surely going to miss her more now, as the world will be a poorer place without her presence.
Marti wasn't "just" a bag of atoms, she was a wonderful, witty and warm bag of atoms and it was my privilege to have known her.
So, Marti my dear, I hope you enjoyed the ride and I hope to catch up with you next time around.

Fondest farewell, from your little xxx

P.S. I know she'd like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44DlSj6bnn4

[rosm]

Bye, Crazy American Aunt!

You'll be missed.

[PooF]

I'm glad you were able to post this news - even if it is sad.

I never thought much of your opinions, Jaboa, but I liked your style: This place was better off with you and poorer without.

Here's to you!

[Keith Jordan]

You can get to know people on the internet more that people in your physical life sometimes. Such sad news.

[Creek]

I've come to npf for the 1st time in a long while with a heavy heart. Marti and I became fast friends from the start. We talked on the phone often, the last time a couple of weeks ago. She was my friend, even though we never met in person.
Her atoms will be redistributed in to the universe, I'll look at the night sky a little differently.

[my breakfast.]

I was very sorry to hear this news today. I had a fair few chats with her, and her offbeat humour is something I vividly remember. At the time I was probably a bit sultry and aloof to talk to, but she made the effort to keep the conversation going. She hinted at her life stories at various times, though I never heard the complete version of each one. Each glimpse of a story seemed as surprising as the last. When I encountered 'legal issues' in 2012 she was on hand with a similar story that went quite some way to console me. I hope her family realise the part she had to play on this forum and the number of people who spoke to her on here. RIP.

[Damn!t]

Sad occasion to reactivate my donkey...

Nice words guys.

She will allways remain alive in our litlle part of cyber space.

Shine on, you crazy american aunt.

[oz1701]

i am greatly sad that i wont hear her chirpy and terrible attempt at an Australian accent at odd hours of the evening.

your calls were always greatly appreciated Marti and i will treasure the memory of every minute of them. i wish you were still here.

you were a perfect friend.

[Stephen]

'Being the only person at a "party" that thinks of it as such. I was at a gathering last night that had a rather sophisticated (stuffy) and erudite (self-important) group, and I was trying to mentally teleport myself out, but it didn't work. At one point, I put my glass of wine on a table and turned to talk (bore) to someone, and when I turned back, a dowager-type was sitting in the chair next to it. I rather indignantly reached over, said "pardon me, but this is mine", and drank it down in a dramatic gulp. Her mouth dropped open, and then I realized I was at the wrong table. This is why the hub never wants to take me anywhere.'

One of Marti's inimitable posts on here and the beautiful thing about it is that this would be no flight of fancy but would just be another story in the wonderful world of Marti, something she was able to relate with consummate ease and make so readable. I wish she could have written a book or maybe a column in a magazine/newspaper as I'd have subscribed to it on the spot. I can remember puzzling over a PM she sent me a few years back until I got a follow up one a few minutes later saying 'Oops sorry that wasn't meant for you...this damn technology' . Her emails were so inventively funny and to speak with her on the phone was a delight. The Marti you saw on here was the Marti you got in real life ... and more.

I'm sure all of us who knew her will have spent a few times since hearing the news reminiscing about things that she said and did which is so remarkable when you think you've never met in 'real' life, that's the impact she had and my life is that much richer for having known her.

[MY RRRRS]

well said, Robert (who is known as Stephen)

[oz1701]

The year before I joined the forum, my older brother died. The month before I joined the forum, my mother died. A year after I joined, one of my best friends died unexpectedly on a camping trip. A year after that, my dearest friend and cousin committed suicide. Then my surviving youngest brother was ill all summer with a cancerous tumour in his jaw. He had a massive surgery and chemotherapy, and despite the fact that one side of his head is paralyzed now, he just bought himself a new Harley Roadster, and is giving fate the finger.



I usually don't go into details about my life on the forum, but I'm trying to illustrate how chaotic and insane existence can be, and how a boring day can be the best day of one's life. I love the days when nothing happens, lol.
If it weren't for the forum, and the beautiful people I have met through it, I would probably have driven over Niagara Falls a few times over. I have nothing but love and affection for this place and it's members. It has literally made me laugh on some of the darkest days of my life, and restored my faith in people many times over. There is something special about Neptuner's. They have a coolness that is rare.
Except for moom, of course.
"-)

it just seemed to be appropriate to quote this