The problem with planning a one-off event is that, well, duh, it's a one off event and you have no bloody ideas how to do it. So I putting together the memorial for Anna that took place today, there was much winging it. How many would come? How many chairs? Who would want to speak - other than those obvious folks who'd expressed an interest. Do we do food? How much?
Stu and I got there around 11:30ish; doors were sorta opened at noon but there were folks gathered, primarily to help. I had said i'd sit at hte table where we had the guest book. We also put out stick-on labels for name tags; we decided that enough of Anna's "people" would not find that tacky. At one point someone said "oh, yeah, at all the political meetings, we all wear them." Funny, because I was thinking of all the science fiction conventions, where we all wear name badges. And then there were the books; Anna' s brother Walter, who'd been staying with his sister for many weeks, thought that an appropriate memento of his sister would be one of her many, many books. So they were laid on out tables and rummaged over and taken away. I took a Neil Gaiman.
I think it was some time after 2 pm that the last person came in. We had hoped, that folks from several of Anna's lives would come together, and since i was sitting right there, I got to greet my friends and ask strangers "so how did you know Anna?" They knew her from the union; she was a shop steward and activist. They knew her from years at work at Seattle Public Utilities, in various jobs and projects - Anna was an engineer. They knew her from the 46th District. They knew her from fandom.
There were photos and food, there were programs and a small "fanzine'" put together by one friend with memories of Anna. There, in the words of the Connie Kaldor song, "was laughter, there were tears". Bob came in from Massachusetts - not sure when he'll get home with that blizzard and the airports being a mess last we checked. Dee came up from the bay area. And they poured in.
And stupid STUPID Andi - here's one of those "you'll hear me bitch sometimes" moments. I couldn't sit still; I'm like that sometimes. I want something to DO or I'm too stressed or uncomfortable. And despite all efforts, I got the DAMN cold I was fighting since like Tuesday. So by the time we left, i was in pain; my head was stuffed with horrid nasty...um, stuff. My body was screaming "what were you thinking?" and I couldn't get warm. It's been like three hours; the hydrocodone's working, some, and I mostly have stopped feeling cold.

And to all of Anna's co-workers and fellow Democrats, union friends and cousins, brothers and ex-roommates, friends in fandom and to her parents and to all of you who spoke and who worked so hard putting this together. Thanks. And dammit all anyway.

I wouldn't have missed it for the world.