Dying sucks
I repeat, dying sucks. Especially when it's your friend. Especially when it's ovarian cancer. Especially when you're hours away.
Paula Behanna, aka Mama Beast, is dying out near Pittsburgh. She doesn't have long, and I hope I can get to see her in the hospice on Saturday before she goes.
We were fans together. We didn't share a fandom but we shared fandom itself and that was enough. She helped me with some of my political stuff and she was great.
We didn't see each other much, mostly a couple of times a year at cons, but our conversations always picked up where they'd left off. She was closer to me than many friends I have near me - fandom is like that.
She's on morphine drip now, and refusing food and medication. She doesn't have long. Her partner, Pam, and I were discussing the problem of homes for the cats, because Pam doesn't feel up to staying at their place afterwards.
I have a zine coming out in August. It's one that Paula listened to me whine about for a couple of cons in a row during a case of writer's block. Paula, I'm dedicating it to you. Pam, yes, a copy for you, as I promised yesterday.
And everyone, ovarian cancer is a bitch. It kills. And it's often barely symptomatic until it's too freaking late. I wrote a Boston Legal novella in which a lovely young woman died because of undiagnosed ovarian cancer. Now another lovely woman is dying from it in real life. Learn about it, everyone. Know the symptoms. Fight for a cure - it doesn't get the PR that breast cancer does. And above all, if you've ever known her, remember Paula.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.