This website will go offline
on November 21, 2021.
I've maintained this website for over 20 years now and 10 years after Anne left us I will take if offline. Without Anne, who had become a real friend over time, the joy has gone out of maintaining it. A new generation (with some of the old fans) is active on the more modern social media now. It'll be their task to keep the torch burning. The last event I attended was the World Science Fiction Convention Dublin 2019 where a good friend led an Anne McCaffrey appreciation track. That, and me finally visiting
Anne's grave and paying my respects, together with my wife and some very, very dear friends, was a fitting end of an era for me. Thank you Gigi for being there too and reminiscing with us then and during a memorable dinner afterwards. A big thank you to all my fellow Anne McCaffrey fans, too. I'll keep in touch! This system is going down...
" 'To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven,' Master Robinton."
"That is poetic, Aivas."
There was one of those pauses that Robinton always thought was the Aivas equivalent of a smile.
'From the greatest book ever written by Mankind, Master Robinton. You may find the entire quotation in the files. The time has been accomplished. This system is going down. Farewell, Masterharper of Pern. Amen."
Robinton sat straight up in his chair, fingers on the pressure plates, though he hadn't a single positive idea of how he could avert what Aivas was about to do. He half turned to the Hall, to call for help, but no one who had the knowledge-Jaxom, Piemur, Jancis, Fandarel, D'ram, or Lytol-was near enough at hand.
The screen that had paraded so much knowledge and issued so many commands and diagrams and plans was suddenly blank, lifeless. In .the right-hand corner, a single line blinked.
" 'And a time to every purpose under heaven,' " Robinton murmured, his throat almost too tight for him to speak. He felt incredibly tired, overwhelmingly sleepy. "Yes, how very true. How splendidly true. And what a wonderful time it has been!"
Unable to resist the lethargy that spread from his extremities, he laid his head down on the inactive pressure plate, one hand holding Zair in the curve of his neck, and closed his eyes, his long season over, his purpose, too, accomplished.
AIVAS and Masterharper Robinton - All the Weyrs of Pern.
Anne McCaffrey died at her home on Monday 21st November (November 2011)
ANNE MCCAFFREY (1926-2011)
Yesterday evening I simply couldn't get my courage up. My mind was in turmoil and I felt so sad... I am so, so, so glad that I decided to pay her visit on her 85th birthday, earlier this year! And she looked so much better, walked so much better than she had done before... Then came the bad news before she was to travel to Dragon*Con and I got a fright. But she pulled through yet again, as she had done several times before. This last time turned out to be too much even for our strong Annie to cope with.
A quiet funeral service will be held for her Saturday at Collier's Funeral Home in Dublin. And the family is planning a larger memorial will be held sometime next year for more family and friends. Anne's daughter Gigi confirmed to me it will possibly be streamed online.
Remember that lovely little white rose bush I gave Anne on her birthday as part of the set of gifts from us fans? It's in the picture in the post about her birthday below. Over the telephone her daughter Gigi said she planted it in her garden and that at first it didn't do well and wilted somewhat. Then, like our beloved author, it defied the odds and shot up and bloomed perfectly when it was time. That set me off crying again. Damn.
Anne has touched my life in so many ways I can't begin to describe them all. But apart from her great books and wonderful stories she "gave" me friends and I got acquainted with so many wonderful people of all ages, from all over the world, just through the shared love for an author. And I know, from personal experience, that she touched so many people that way that you would almost think that she was more than "just an author". She certainly was gifted, in many more ways than having an uncanny good way to tell a story and write it down.
Yesterday I twittered:
"Heaven better had dragons. Anne McCaffrey deserves one. Goodbye my friend."
To which Jody Lynne Nye reacted with:
"Well, would it be heaven without dragons?"
My favourite Pern poem suddenly gets another meaning...
1967-2007
