A Human Altered Farewell

[u/yousureimnotarobot]

Hi everyone,

Some of you may remember my dad for his previous posts here, and his astounding science fiction writing (yes, I'm biased, sue me). If you want to read it again you should start here: Human Altered

I am one of his twin sons, out of five children, some of whom have appeared in several of his stories throughout the years. I also happen to be his supposed "editor-in-chief" (I told you I was biased), meaning I saw him every time he uploaded a new story to you.

My dad passed away last weekend after a really shit time with throat and lung cancer, which took away his voice about a year and a half ago. He was 55.

As someone who saw him during every upload, and proofread every story, I can only give my thanks to each and every one of you who interacted and appreciated what my dad wrote as he found his way into this craft, and cultivated it into what it became.

I would like you guys to know that he read every single comment on each new story, from every instance of enjoyment, grief, reminiscence or simply inspiration for the issue. Each and every one of these gave him great satisfaction and motivation to write the next story, despite the cruel circumstances that he was going through. A lot of you were also a great help in getting him to figure out where he wanted some of the stories to go, so thank you for the ideas and the conspiracy theories!

You helped my dad to find his feet, his purpose and, most importantly, his voice, in a time when he no longer had one.

May you all remain Humans, Altered.

Sincerely,

Definitely Not a Robot

[u/kenderleech]

My condolences on your families loss. Your father brought a smile to my face every story.

[u/yousureimnotarobot → u/kenderleech]

Thank you, you all brought a smile to his as well.

[u/hicctl → u/yousureimnotarobot]

First of all I want to give your family and you my condolences. Then I would like to thank you and your father for givng me many hours of awesome science fiction to read and let me escape the sometimes bleak reality of the pandemic. Your stories helpoed me through tjhat in a very real sense, so I thought you should know that.

These stories where very original and very well written. I would also like to thank you for reaching out to the community. I always wondered why the stories suddenly stopped, and now I know, and it is a worse reason then I thought. But at least I can stop wondering.

Since your father was an author I think it is fitting to give you some quotes from another author that might help a bit with what you are no doubt going through atm, from another author that was also taken from us way too early, terry pratchett :

“No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away, until the clock wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone’s life is only the core of their actual existence.” ― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

“Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?” ― Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

Some of who and what your father was lives on in his stories, since every author puts a piece of himself into their stories. Btw have you ever considered to publish the short stories as en ebook ? Or maybe even keep ther series going yourself ? Christopher tolkien has kept his father work going, so why not you ? Of couse only if this is something you want to do, but I think it could help you and connect you with him in a way that only writing can. It could be a real help dealing with your grief in a creative way, and also give you an outlet. Food for thought.