This weekend, I went to two memorial services. They were for Janet Kagan on Saturday, and Robert Legault on Sunday. Theirs were, I think, the first obituaries I’ve written for SFScope of people I’ve actually known. I said something about each of them in the obituaries (linked above).
Janet’s service was at her home in New Jersey. Sixty or seventy people packed the small house, which had been the site of many wonderful parties. And this gathering felt quite similar to those (several people remarked that Janet would have loved the party), except for her absence. I smiled to see her Asimov’s readers’ awards still hanging on the wall (I was on the magazine’s editorial staff when she won them) and her Hugo on the mantle (I remember her utter amazement when she won it in San Francisco).
It was a rainy, windy day, but during a lull in the weather, we all trooped outside. Ricky, her husband, led us in burying her ashes at the base of a big tree right by the front door. It was a moving moment.
Michael Swanwick has photos of the party and the burial at this link.
Robert’s service was at a funeral home in Manhattan. Even more people packed the room to overflowing. Several people, including his sister and good friends, spoke of him, and they described a person I realized I hadn’t known nearly as well as I would have liked. His seemingly limitless variety of passions and experiences make me feel that I’ve missed out on a good friend: someone I would have loved to spend more time with.
The number of people packed into that room, who were connected to him through many different paths, and the words they spoke of him, made me wonder how I would be remembered if something happened to me. It was certainly a kick in the pants to do more, as he did. And I think he would have been gratified to see how many lives he’d touched.
Ellen Datlow has photos of the memorial and the continuing remembrance at this link. Also, see her thoughts on the service.