Requiem for Wally

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

There are times in this life when your heart literaly stops beating. Everything seems to slow down and your ordered preconception of how things work shatters into a million gleaming shards. Such a moment happend to me about thirty minutes ago when I opened the MB and saw the thread anouncing that WallyM7 was with us no longer. It is curious, how your body reacts at such times. I could feel the blood drain from my face, my heart finaly got going after what seemed like forever, my hands shook and went cold. I anxiously re-read the op, hoping against hope that I had made a mistake. Unfortunately, what I had read was correct. The heart and soul of the SDMB had gone on to brighten lives on another plane of existance, leaveing all of us here so very much poorer. Amy, Ms. WallyM7, what can I say? Your loss is magnitudes greater than ours, and I am just plum devistated. Please take it from me when I tell you how grateful I am that you shared this wonderful man with us for so long. In an area where many seem to feel that the family is a somehow antiquated concept, you were lucky to have the best.
As I sat here, it occured to me that i was going about this all wrong. The tears were natural, for I am human and have suffered a great loss. The inevitable “why?” is part and parcel of being a thinking creature. What is not so clear is what to do with this hole that has opened up in the center of my chest. Something’s missing. What should I do? Gradualy, it became clear. Fill it up. I decided to fill my hole not with the ache of what I had lost, but with the history of all I had gained.

As a raw newby here, I had know idea how to post. I recently went back and found the first one, and yea gods! did it stink. I was not active for a while, and late last year, I came back. I started to contribute, and in time I would like to believe that I became a fairly aceptable poster. A funny thing happened as I grew on the boards. I noticed this guy. He had a plethora of posts, yet they were always worth reading. As someone who fancies himself a witty guy, I noticed this guy was blessed with a natural sense of humor and timeing. This guy was quicker than a mongoose to strike down a trolling idiot, and I have yet to see the troll that can match him. It’s actually kinda sad, like watch a boxing match between George Foreman and a handicapped girl scout. This was, of course, Wally.

Everyone on the boards seemed to know him. I don’t believe there is anyone who regularly posted who is ambivilent about him. The good regs recognised and benifited from his presence. The bad ones avoided him like he avoided mice. Almost everyone on this board has a genuine Wally sig. When I went to the B’more/DC dopefest last week, people greeted me with mine-“you’re not as Dave as you look”. There are so many people here who view “putz” as the perfect insult due to Wally, a stranger might think that this is a MB of old jewish men. I think the clearest evidence of Wally’s influence here is that when Shayna posted the terrible news, the thread went to multi-pages in under an hour.

So, fellow dopers, please help me out. I need to fill in this hole. Share your favorite Wallyisms here. I was personaly touched when he said, very respectfully, that he enjoyed my clown poem. I’ts nice to get recognition for a creative effort, and I thank Wally for taking the time to type out his feelings. Please, take that careing and respect, and use it to fill a little bit of your hole. Please post something to help me fill mine.

2

I don’t think that any one enjoyed my silly suck up posts more than Wally.

The fact that I made him laugh, if only for a moment, is my only consolation at this moment.

3

Yea, and Amen Dave.

I always told Wally how much I loved that Bike. And I’ll stand by that admiration eternally. Good taste is good taste. And here’s to the Sunset Ride, my good great friend!

4

I can’t stop crying and I don’t understand why it hurts so bad to lose someone you never even met, someone who was a friend you talk to on a message board about silly things. But it does, I’ve lost family members whose deaths didn’t hurt this much.

Wally will be remembered and missed for a very long time. Not only by those who knew him in real life, but those of us who never had the pleasure of meeting him face to face.
That is the mark of a truely great man.

God, I hate this.

Ayesha

5

He was a great guy, I’m so sad. :frowning:

6

Ayesha, you met Wally in the best place possible, in the heart. That to me means more than anything. Wally is in my heart.

7

I have this mental list of older relatives and friends that I could sit and listen to talk for hours. Those that I admired for everything they are. I never met Wally, but he was in that list. We never bantered back and forth like old friends but I could read his posts (listen to him) forever. I was never as proud feeling (even if that is silly) on the SDMB as when he picked me out and gave me a personalized sig based on my profile… Wally, you my man will be greatly missed! Put in a good word for me??

8

In the five years plus years I have been on the internet, there have only been two people I knew that passed away.

The first one was last year. I even created a website for his family and vowed to keep it up there for as long as I can. Here’s the link if you are interested but if not that’s okay too.

What is so strange about this whole thing is last night I was going to post my link after fixing the graphics, you will see what I mean, and show people what can be done with a site as opposed to silly personal pages.

My computer crapped out on me and I still can’t get access to the other computer.

I site back and wonder if there was a reason I was unable to post that link last night. It’s as if someone was telling me that it was the wrong time to post it on the boards.

I would be willing to do the same for Wally’s family if they would like. I will not put it off like the SDMB People pages. The friends and family of the man on my site still visit today.

< shaking head in disbelief >

We love you Wally!

9

Wally: The Epitome Of The Straight Dope, a hero for all those seeking to fight ignorance with a bit of entertainment thrown into the mix.

10

Shortly before Wally had his heart surgery, my sig line was “The quickest way to a man’s heart is through his ribcage.”

More than once, Wally posted under me and gently requested that I change my sig (“WILL YOU PLEASE LOSE THAT SIG!!” if I remember correctly).

I changed it, to something along the lines of “No sig, until Wally thinks up something cool to put here.”

He sent me a list of sigs, and I changed it after his surgery.

I had one of the first Wally sigs. Not the very first–I can’t remember who had the first, possibly Drain Bead.

I still have the list Wally sent me. I’ll pick a new one soon.

Thanks, Wally.

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One of the sages that inspired me to join fully the SDMB and stop being a lurker. A great man with great wit, humor, sensibility, and a strong character that showed through even my dark and dirty monitor.
As bright as the sun,
with the glow of the moon,
and the finesse of a red rose
as it grows into full bloom;
You exist as nothing else.
True in my heart,
as soon as i touched you,
my soul in a sling,
you healed my pain,
and brought a new feeling in.
A long overdue emotion sprang up within,
that i haven’t experienced since the world brought me in.
And now i lay down,
with my thoughts facing You.
And no fears at all, that these feelings will leave me too soon.
we’ll miss him. he could so easily bring a smile to my face by just posting. imagine what he could do in person…

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I think my favorite is what he said to fnord when the dude made the mistake of posting a message with only smilies for chiefscott . . . all about running to madagascar and taking the bullseye off.

He was a good man. In this age, that’s saying a lot.

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              - WallyM7, 4/20/00

I will be printing out the “Wally Tries Cybersex!” thread this evening. Though I suppose, when I share it with my friends and they are wetting themselves over its hilarity, they might wonder why I am only able to muster a feeble smile.

14

Opal is putting up a page on the Teeming Millions Homepage, so keep you eyes open.

15

In the great pool of reflection on Wally tonight; he really was one of the few souls who could hang with the guys, and hang sweet equal with the ladies. He could swiftly defend the board from idiot invasion, and then turn right around and offer a tender shoulder for those in need. And then he would play the fool through his poking fun-at-himself adventures. All of y’all wonderful folks in mind, there just isn’t any comparison to his presence.

Oh. Wally, you exquisite magnificent honorable Hon, I wish I could find the words to do you justice!

Good grace on the fly on yond.

16

I had the madagascar thing as my quote for a while, but i thought i should take it off in respect,
now its 3124 Wallys final post count

17

In my very first ill-considered post (in the Pit; spare the newbies!) Wally was one of the first to flame–and rightfully so. But he also immediately cut slack, explained what I did wrong and went out of his way reach out a hand.

As usual with Wally ::pauses for gush of tears:: his words and timing were impeccable. Without an ounce of sentiment but a world of kindness he figured out I was floudering through a bad time–and he did it on the boards, so subtlely I didn’t even realize what he was doing.

Through curmudgeonly, self-deprecating posts he showed me how to take part here, keeping private what I wanted but still let other people get to know me.

We exchanged a crashing total of maybe 3 emails, tops, most when he was going into heart surgery.

So it’s all the more amazing that this most funny, humane person became a genuine friend–and all right here on the board. I’ve grieved much less for the death of assorted relatives than this unique, vivid presence in my life that I only knew through his words.

The means may have been untraditional, but the quality and essential goodness of the man leapt over barriers to make friends anyway. Character always comes through, no matter what.

My heart breaks for Amy and Mrs. Wally. I wish we could do more for them, for themselves and for him.

Veb

18

I would like to offer my sincerest apologies to Wally’s son, Steve. When I wrote the above, I was unaware of you. rest asured I would have included you with the rest of you family in the OP. God, I am so sorry…

19

This Fucking SUCKS
I havent stopped crying since I read what happened, and that was like 3 hours ago.
That one man could touch so many people in such a little time speaks volumes, that he could make them all cry when he passed so suddenly speakes more that is possible.
I feel so fucking horrible right now.
Truly we have lost our great one.

20

I don’t know exactly what to say; others have said it all.
I loved him, and still do.
He sent me an e-mail congratulating me on my engagement, which meant a alot to me.
I know he’s with God; I gues this would be an answer to that thread what is a christian: Wally, thats the example.
I hadn’t cried earlier, now I think I have to.:frowning: