Astroboy asks:
Last year, on July 1st, the animal group I volunteer with saved a sweet tabby cat from euthanasia. I adopted him. His name is Wally. 
It’s now a quarter past midnight, July 20, 2001.
A year ago today.
I arrived at work (this was probably the 21st, come to think of it), and fired up the computer. I checked my home e-mail (webbased version), and started scanning the mail subjects. As you do.
I immediately spotted a few messages from Weirddave, elelle, waterj2, Shirley Ujest, and Mullinator. Not people I get e-mail from on a daily basis (I wasn’t a moderator back then, and my inbox wasn’t as full as it is these days).
A few clicks told me what happened. I got up and walked to the coffee machine. While pressing the buttons on the machine, I had trouble to keep from tearing up. But how the hell would you explain THAT to your colleagues? Crying over some Canuck that you never met, apart from a few words on a message board?
So I made sure I didn’t cry. I don’t know what productive work I got done that day, but it can’t be much. The boards were completely about Wally. MPSIMS didn’t move except for 5 or 6 Wally-related threads. I was just trying to look up the thread in which Shayna announced the bad news. I couldn’t find it for some reason, and maybe that’s for the best. I still can’t read that without getting all misty eyed. Part of that is the knowledge of what a great friend Wally was to Shayna particularly.
I just browsed through my e-mail folders, and found this.
I don’t know what gets to me more. The fact that he went through the trouble of sending me an e-mail when he just got back from the hospital, or the fact that this considerable operation was to be all in vain. And above all, I can’t help but smile at it for the great humour this man had. Even with a shitload of stitches across his chest, and in terrible pain.
All I can say is that I miss him. I still do. It’s the weirdest thing. Like TwistofFate said: it changed my outlook on this message board forever. I didn’t know I could care so much for someone I didn’t know in person until Wally died.
Amy, if you read this: I hope you and your family are doing well. This must be a hard time for you, and I hope you find comfort in each other.
40 minutes past midnight, July 20, 2001. I’m getting another Guinness from the fridge. I would have loved to down a few of those with you, Wally. But as it is, we’ll have to do it like this. Cheers to you matey, wherever you are. Thanks for all the laughs. You’re unforgettable.
Jasper
< small little sobs >
Wally, we still all miss you. Words are not easy to come by this day. But I thought about you on Father’s Day since you had a great one with the kids back then.
< sigh >
Wally was the embodiment of everything that makes this board a great place to hang out.
Especially because he didn’t act like he realized that.
His loss here was profound. I feel it significantly even now, a year later. I can only imagine how it must be to those who knew him, loved him, tipped a brew with him and laughed hysterically at/with him on a daily basis, “in real life.”
My Canadian lager is raised to you, Wally. It was good to know you, even in this limited way, for a limited time.
I didn’t get a chance to get to know Wally as well as others here, but after reading his misadventures with some gerbils with short-life spans, I knew that story would blend perfectly with the main character of the book I’d mean planning. I asked his permission to use the story and he granted it.
After his death, I went back through all my notes and changed the main character’s name on each page from Andy to Wally. I only wish there was a better way to pay tribute.
I thought of Wally today too, as I do most days, actually. I realized that it really had been a whole year. I found myself vividly recalling every moment of that evening when I found out. I hadn’t been able to get on the boards yet, as I was busy trying to make dinner for my family. Then elelle called me. I had to have my husband take over dinner, because I was shaking so badly I couldn’t peel the potatoes, and I was afraid I’d cut my thumb off.
I lit a candle for Wally, his family, and the SDMB that night. Then I did what I knew I’d do, and what I’ve continued to do since then, because I knew it was what Wally would want.
I’ve continued to live.
The world shook when Wally left it, but it continued to turn. My family still needed me, my job still expected me to do it. I went on. Wally was gone, but I wasn’t, and I had to keep going. So I did.
Every once in a while, I’ll look up at the sky, and I’ll smile and wave. Just to let Wally know that I’m still here, I’m still living, and his memory still makes me smile.
I never “met” him, I came to the party too late.
Everything I’ve ever seen from him makes me think he would have been someone I’d have searched for post from each day.
Everything I’ve ever seen people say about him makes me think I’d had enjoyed meeting him IRL at a Dopefest.
It’s strange, not only to want to meet someone I’ve never met, but to be saddened by the fact that I never will.
If anyone ever has any doubt that this, the SDMB, is a community and that people really care about each other, all they would ever have to do is look at the outpouring of emotion surrounding this single and singular member. I’m proud and happy to be a part of this.
thinksnow…you summed it up for me perfectly.
Over the weekend I joined the Teeming Millions and found the Wally Memorial Page. I read everything there and laughed until I cried. I wish I had joined the SDMB sooner and had the chance to interact with him.
It also made me appreciate the friends I’ve made here even more-I love you guys.
Anyoe who says this is “just a message board” has no frigging clue.
Another beer lifted in your honor, Wally.
Wally, perhaps more than any other person you made us aware of ourselves as a community and not just a bunch of people who post to threads. We won’t forget you.
I too came too late to the SDMB to have gotten to know Wally. But, from reading a lot of his posts, and all the things you guys have said, I know I would have loved him.
Tommorrow night is my usual night at the bar. Every beer I drink will be for Wally. Also, I think I’ll do something I’ve never done. I’m going to smoke my first cigar.
For Wally.
I’ve heard a man is only remembered by the things he left behind. Wally left a lot behind for us to remember him by. Even those of us who never got to know him.
Smoked me out of a cyber-sawbuck, he did. During our brief incursion on the snopes board (all trace of which has been vaporized).
But I’ll easily forgive him for the enjoyment of life on the board that he brought to me. I hope Amy and all are doing well.
A year…? It doesn’t seem like it… I barely knew him… I did ‘talk’ to him once or twice in threads. Not much though as I was a newbie and he was the great Wally… I remember asking him for a sig… he never did get me one… an honour I shall always regret missing. hugs to everyone and Wally’s family
I was so crazy about that man.
I knew this day was coming, as I will remember every anniversary of his death for the rest of mine. The putz went and died on my birthday.
I remember all the people in chat. I remember Asking incredously “is he dead?” not expecting to hear he was. I was a little mad because the topic was ‘in memory of wally’ or some such, and I thought that was very poor taste for a man who was hurt and in the hospital. To my horror someone said “Yes, he was gone.”
I still have the email card he sent me a year and a half ago, when I was at my lowest point, telling me that everything would be ok.
I never saw a pic of Wally until shortly before his death, and in my mind, he was ten feet tall, as handsome as sin, with a smile to melt butter.
I will always remember him that way, the most wonderful man I never met.
Miss you, old friend.
Elenfair
This make a year that I’ve been here on this board. I was brough here by Wally’s death. Someone cross-posted to another board that I was on, so I visited SDMB and was washed away be the outpouring of love, grief and support shown by the members of this board on that sad occasion. I still think that this board has some of the best people to be found online anywhere. Wally, I wish I’d known you and that I’d been around here before you left us.