Heather.

Heather may have never remembered me, but I will always remember her. She was around during the best part of my Bakersfield life, the Misbliss days... Heather was the goddess that was my friend's wife.

Heather was a gorgeous, talented, brave, warrior woman. She was an Amazon. She may have even loved us little goth rock rug rats. What I do know is she was always extremely kind to me and a hell of lot of fun to be around.

I feel horrible because I heard what happened while I was home for Thanksgiving but it didn't click who had passed away, because of the way I got the information and because I never knew Heather by her birth last name, but as my friend's wife. My friend's last name.

Heather was never intimidating to me because she was so (excuse me) fucking inspiring to me. I loved her in this very little girl crush way. Because she was so brave and so sure of who she was. She wasn't at least in my eyes scared of anything or anyone. She was my own personal Siouxsie Sioux. I'll never forget her and a lot of my friends won't either.

Tell the people you love that you love them every day. Tell them constantly. Tell them until you're mute and they're deaf. Never let anyone you love slip away. Never let anyone you remotely care about feel alone. Never be afraid to tell people you idolize that you love them, that you care. Never. It's messy and embarrassing but it's real. Be real. Be strong. Be an Amazon.

This. When I think of Heather, this is what I think of:

goodnight

Last night I got the sad news that one of my former co-workers from the Clear Channel days of SLO and Santa Maria passed away.

M had been fighting cancer for awhile now. Hard. Four years ago they told her she had like six months live and well... that was four years ago. I think we all held our breath and hoped she'd beat it a little longer, because I can't think of a single person who doesn't love M. She was this gorgeous firecracker of a woman and although I didn't work with her every day, I looked forward to seeing her at our station gatherings. She always had a smile on her face and made everyone else around her smile too.

My heart aches for my former co-workers back home. My thoughts are with you guys. And with M, she'll be missed.