Robin's Tea Set

I am just finishing-up a major virtual build project in Second Life and wanted to tell you about a letter I wrote to someone this morning, much like the letter that was written to me yesterday.

My project is called "The Mysterious Traveler BookShoppe", and is a destination hub in which residents use books, doorways and rabbit holes as a way to teleport to interesting places on the virtual grid.

While decorating the Shoppe I purchased a Blue Willow tea set. Anyone who follows my art knows that Blue Willow china has played a major role in my work and was the foundation for my children's book, WillowMouse.

Being a builder of virtual objects for over 10 years, I am a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to them. This tea set is one of the most beautiful objects I have ever seen in this virtual world. Not only that, the drinking animations in the cups are the best aligned and most perfectly functioning I have ever experienced. Others who have tried them also remark about this.

Wanting to personally thank the maker of this wonderful work - I looked up their contact information, her name was Robin, and failing to read her profile, I wrote her a letter thanking her so much for making the tea set and told her that I felt this was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen in Second Life.

I then sent it to her, once again, failing to read the bio in her profile.

After sending her the letter, I finally read her profile.

Robin passed away from cancer on April 19, 2021

I can't put words to how this has impacted me emotionally. I never met this person, and yet I know her through the beauty of this virtual object she made. Reading more about her I learned that she was an artist in Real Life, just like me. For some reason that made this even more painfully sad. I've been sitting here crying, overcome with sadness, for several hours and I don't really know why.

But I felt very compelled to share this story here. There's something important in it and the way it unfolded, I just can't identify what it is right now.

Until next time ...