the words are not coming easy to me... I spent the majority of the night awake... trying to piece together my thoughts... when I first read Lilith's post at 8 pm last nite... it was honestly as if I couldn't understand... as I read the first line.. and began the second.. my mind was trying to convince me that she meant that "Skip.. the online persona left us"... I had to read it 3 times as I bawled to realize that losing "Skip" was only part of it... I can only say that Skip touched my life profoundly... that his posts only allowed a glimpse into the man that he was... that his emails and phonecalls opened the view for me... and that I am a better person today for knowing him... for loving him as I did.

There are so many facets to him that so many of you here never had the opportunity to know... the man he was... the sensitive loving caring soul that he kept hidden under the jokes... the loving father that he was... the worthy friend he was... I wish I could have helped him display more of all of that here...

I shall miss this man... this friend... more than these words will ever express... I pray that peace has found him... embraced him... and that somehow he knows in death what he never completely grasped in life... that he is loved... and that he is by far one of the most beautiful loving humans to have ever touched my life....

Thank you Skip... for sharing your time with me... I shall think of you fondly and look forward to the day when I shall finally embrace you.