Kei's eulogy
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~Many thanks to M, T and R for letting me share a little bit about Keiliss and what she meant to me.
Kei and I were a very unlikely friendship from the start. I grew up in a small town in America eight thousand miles (or 13 thousand kilometers) from South Africa and I had never really heard of the band Queen. *grin* But the internet made our friendship possible. We met on a mailing list based on the fantasy books of J.R.R. Tolkien and quickly established a connection based around the love of stories. We shared an intense passion for books and saw libraries as magical gateways to different worlds and the people who inhabited them.
Kei wrote as a young teenager but put the words aside to focus on art, music, her family (and more books of course). Then, as time and grown children allowed, she discovered the magic of writing again.
As her editor, I had the privilege of discussing her writing, reading her stories and encouraging her in any way I could. This hobby connected her to people all over the world - the UK, America, Germany, Portugal, the isle of Skye, and Argentina...just to name a few.
She drew from a deep well of imagination, but also grounded her stories in facts. She wanted to make sure her stories felt right - I remember she once spent a week researching how paper was made in medieval times because no detail was too small. She also cared about the community to whom she shared her stories. In the wake of her passing, many people have told me how kind and generous she was and how much she will be missed.
Her friendship was deep and abiding. We saw each other through personal loss, family drama, medical problems, wild political times and a pandemic. She shared the small details of her life with me and I with her. I'd never set foot on South Africa before this trip, but when I did, it already felt like a second home.
It's my honour to be here and say that Keiliss was a fiercely loyal, incredibly intelligent and kind woman, who was never afraid to ask 'why'. I am immeasurably blessed to have had her friendship in my life.
I take comfort in the fact that she lives on in the memory and hearts of us lucky enough to have known and loved her.
Khalil Gibran said this: Oh heart, if one should say to you that the soul perishes like the body, answer that the flower withers, but the seed remains.
Thank you, Kei. I'll never forget you.
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Kei wanted a pine box that her grandchildren and loved ones could draw on. I wrote this for us.