I met Sacred Singh, as I met many avies in my early days in Second Life, through Miles Montgolfier. Her avie was that of an ethereal blonde, but she openly admitted that she was a much older woman at the keyboard, with grown children and I believe grandchildren as well.

On my first rezday, she was the one I ended up talking to when a relationship I was in reached a crisis point. True to her professional training as a therapist, she did not urge me to break it off, but she did urge me to ask myself what I really wanted, what would make me truly happy and how I could fulfill those needs.

She suggested I use a mirror. Instead, I eventually ended up incarnating as Beginning, and talking to myself that way.

The last time I'd talked to her was on my third rezday. I'd just gone through another dark night of the soul and she again provided her support to me.

November, I'd been phone texting back and forth with Miles about some things for Social Butterfly and Miles dropped the news on me: Sacred had cancer again, and it was spreading rapidly.

There I was (or there The Me was, if you like) curled up in the corner of a coffeehouse with my iPhone, crying openly in grief for a woman I'd never met in the flesh. A tall man in black--a musician of my acquaintance--noticed and was kind enough to stop and hold my hands as I wept and tried to explain to him why.

Last night, I'd booked a suite on the SS Galaxy and was curled up with Beginning for a little quality time when Miles popped inworld for a moment. Beginning waited patiently, the way she does, as I IMed with Miles and found out the news--that Sacred had passed away on Saturday.

I sent an IM to GypsyDoctor Donat, who knew her in RL as well as SL and who had been the one to tell Miles about her. He mentioned that Sacred's daughter may take over the account long enough to pass the news on to the avies on her friends list. How strange it would be to see her name one last time in the corner of my screen, even knowing that she's never really coming back.

Well, when you host a discussion on the nature of identity in Second Life, I guess it comes with the territory, doesn't it?

My second little salon discussion at the Saturn Grill went quite well. I had a little more lead time to advertise and I at least tried to put out a Notice to the Quantum Tribe Laboratories Group, but was thwarted by the fact that I, personally, was not at that membership level, so I settled for a quick announcement in Group Chat and left it at that.

( Cut for revealed secrets, circle-breaking and all that jazz . . .  )

Thanks to all who showed up and tune in next week! At GypsyDoctor's suggestion, this week's discussion will be about time in Second Life--how much time we spend in it and how much time is worth it. (I'll link to the Event listing when it goes up officially--I just posted it this morning.)