I was woken from a dead sleep this morning at 7:00 am to be told that Ann Johnson had passed away during the night from respiratory complications.

She asked me, several years ago, when she left her townhome for an assisted living facility, to oversee the moving of her stuff. It took me far longer than any reasonable person should expect, about a year. The delay was on my end, not hers. Patience was never one of Ann's virtues, but she showed far more patience with me than I had any right to expect.

During the course of sifting through the volumes of video tapes housing the most cherished memories of her lifetime, the crates of magazines and fanzines for the various shows and groups she was following or was a member of; and, of course, the tons of collectibles and artwork that she had amassed through a lifetime of collecting, I found the following photograph.

I thought at the time "this is the way I want to remember Ann." I'm glad that I was able to dredge up a copy from the records so that I could post it here.

The word is given, Ann.

Here's a link to her journal page at AOL. Yes, she was an AOLer, but I never held it against her.