May 10th 1975 ~ Oct 8th 2008
I first spoke with Rebecca Mello in the fall of 1998 through a variety of friends made on the Message Boards at Garbage.Com. She stood out then for the same reason she stands out to me now; she was a voice of reason when the crazy came a'courtin.
Although I wouldn't meet her face-to-face for another year and a half there wasn't a day that went by where she wasn't somehow a touchstone of calm for me. It's been 10 years and that hasn't changed. We'd go months without speaking and then suddenly have daily phone-calls that lasted till one or the both of us passed out.
Becca was eclectic and passionate, soft-spoken and always surprising. She was subtle and musical, artistic and very wise for her years. She was a Sage in Powerpuff Girl packaging ("Buttercup" she'd specifically say)... meaning that she was tiny but heroic and life gave her enough adversities to prove the comparison true. I never understood how people could walk along their daily lives and miss what a force she was. She was terminally modest, quick to forgive and so very slow to anger... that used to drive me nuts!
We complimented each other well despite being seemingly opposites. I taught her to speak out and she taught me to calm down. Through knowing one another we discovered wondrous things about ourselves...and found a world between us that made more sense than apart.
When I tell stories, as I often do, she's always a part of them ... Hell, I wouldn't have had the voice to tell stories without her. She's a governing force in my life... and what I miss most is not having her on my next adventure, to read my next comic, to draw strength and inspiration from or to illicit tearful laughs from.
She was much more than a friend, she was probably my favorite person... I'm proud to have loved her, prouder still to have been loved by her.
If anyone thinks something as common place as Death is going to stop that, now... than they've underestimated her yet again.
The silly bitches.
(Graffitas by Bex A.K.A. Melloramor.)