Melissa J. is an Angel ..........Still Verticle on BCO

Valjean

Melissa,

In a few short hours, later this morning, it will be exactly one year.....

I wish things had not turned out the way they did......

I wish that every day.

I miss you very much, my dear friend.

      "Love ya lots!" 

Val

chrissyb

She is never far from my thoughts.

Alyson

On Saturday when I took  a picture of two Tuis I thought of Melissa and realised it was just on a year.

FireKracker

awww Mel it's one year 

After the rough ride u had I NO U R RESTING IN PEACE

Yes today is a mourning day

Let's all remember her the way she was not how she passed

I just wish I went to that reunion that I missed

Should have,could have,would have.

No one is promised tomorrow

templewh

Today marks the one year anniversary of Melissa's death -- for accuracy, it should be called some degree of homicide.  I was totally rocked by the way she died and was fairly consumed by digging at the details and only just found your communication today -- one year later.  I first met Melissa years ago when she stopped in at the Domestic and Sexual Violence Crisis Prevention and Intervention Center on the Outer Banks of NC. Afterward I became a faithful reader of the sport fishing column she wrote for a local paper. Years later, she talked with me in another setting once during an internship I worked while I was working toward an MSW. She came to talk intermittently over the last two years of her life -- sad or happy, with good news or bad, sometimes to discuss her photography and an idea for a business, sometimes upbeat with enthusiastic anticipation or dejected and uncertain, once to talk about photographs and a shoot where she had lain on the ground for hours waiting for the wild horses to come, and ALWAYS with a heart for sharing her life experiences with the goal that someone else (less able to articulate the negative, hurtful impact of actions of others) might be helped through her sharing insight into her own life with us. February before she died, she allowed me to drive her to Dr. Carmen's office (breast cancer specialist in Norfolk, Va) and accompany her through the initial interview and biopsy that afternoon.  I believed there was no one else she could ask -- that she didn't have anyone. I could not have been more mistaken as her cellphone rang almost continuously all day -- likely some of you were among the concerned well wishers.  There was always something almost, but not quite, tangible about our relationship.  She offered up bits of herself -- the music she enjoyed, her love for people she knew through AA and breast cancer groups, her love of nature, animals, and the outdoors, her loyalty to those special folk who always accepted and opened their hearts and themselves to her and never betrayed her. In addition to the obvious (she came to see me because of where I work), she shared her knowledge of Native American lore and energy from gemstones, rocks and beach glass.  I continue to have huge respect for Melissa -- all she survived and the way she did it.  I never knew she used Stillvertical as a sign on. Oddly, for years, that has been my response when asked that casual "How are you?" It almost always draws a smile.  Reading her name today just made me feel reflective and sad.  While she certainly paid an unfair price, I trust Melissa finally found peace a year ago. 

Gingerbrew

Dear Melissa  I pray you are at peace. It is so difficult to reconcile your love of life with your ending. Although my phone erased your messages that I had saved I can still hear your voice when I think about you. 

We all loved you Mel. 

Love Barb 

GIngerbrew 

duckyb1

Mel......you deserved better.......thinking about you today after looking on the Angels Wall......