For the Love of Lucy

Lucy was always there for me inworld with a word of encouragement, a joke or a useful observation. Always the same, generous, funny, creative.

In virtual worlds, when you don't see someone around for a while, it is easy to assume that they're simply busy elsewhere, or perhaps not feeling up to sitting in front of a computer. That happened with me and Lucy. This summer came along, the Safari trips took a break, and so did I, from virtual worlds... life got busy, and I totally missed seeing the news on Facebook that Lucy (in RL Peter Jones) had passed away. Only today, going to check his Facebook profile to see how he was doing, did I find out what happened.

Lucy Afarensis

That's part of the paradox of the modern world where in theory everyone is in touch with everyone else and we all know everything. In reality, we only know what we know, follow what we follow. Information we need and care about doesn't always get through.

Lucy was key to the HG Safari tours around Opensim throughout the years. More than either of us ever put into words, whenever we got the opportunity to chat - I wish told him more often what our friendship meant to me. Lucy was in SL from 2007 and in Opensim not long after that (Lucy's regions faced onto the OSGrid Moat, close to LBSA),  and the choice of the name name 'Lucy Afarensis' was a humorous reference to age - by a person who was never a fossil by any means.

We had a memorable visit to Lucy's region, including the Grove Gallery, in May 2018. We visited her place on Francogrid back in 2016 also, enjoying a concert by Nazira Avro - Lucy was always a canny opensimmer, spreading the wealth of builds over different grids, so as not to risk losing all if one of them should fail. That's not a lot of Safari visits, you may say, considering how interesting these places were, but Lucy was always the first to give up a spot in the HG Safari calendar, in favor of some other builder or artist, so to finally get to bring the whole group over to experience the horseback trip across this vast landscape was an absolute privilege.

Lucy's regions on OSgrid were a poetry of landscaping - 'Afar'

This is the last picture of Lucy on the HG Safari blog, from February this year, you can see that energetic high kicking dancing, the distinctive green pants, at the center of the image. Lucy was always a strong supporter of Cornflakes Week, and now it'll be all the more poignant for us all.

 The first time I met Lucy Afarensis was when she came to join in on one of the very early HG Safari trips. 

Lucy chatting to James Atlloud at Mount Grace Priory

Lucy was on so many memorable Safari trips, they're too many to name. Whether it was a medieval monastery, or a space station, 'Serenity', on Kitely grid,

Lucy talking to Lawrence Pierce on Serenity, Kitely Grid.

You could rely on Lucy for a kind compliment to the region owner, a thoughtful question, or a funny contribution to our silly talk. You could count on Lucy for a kind word to me when it was pretty obvious things were going pear shaped, and help out if there was a need for some teleporting or shepherding of the Safari crew.

Photo by Lucy riding a dragon at Land of Xzar

Lucy was a great photographer in rl of course, but also inworld - here is a self portrait that was featured in the post 'Shining Xzar' a region built by Star Ravenhurst. This image shows what virtual worlds can give us - the excitement, the suspension of disbelief, the incongruousness and infinite possibilities of a pixel-based life. 

Hyperica. Not all our textures traveled with us!

A great explorer, an adventurous spirit, the above photo shows the Safari group back in 2014 arriving on Hyperica (remember when you had to have way stations to get from one end of the Hyperverse to the other?). Lucy is kind of brown/greyed out,  at the beginning of our Safari trips, and in an opensim we almost no longer recognize, it's become so much more sophisticated.

Making the HG Safari calendar for 2015, I asked Lucy to be one of the 'Women of Opensim'. I had an idea for an edgy, dangerous image for December. Lucy agreed immediately to participate, and this remains one of my favorite images ever. 

I'm going to miss Peter, aka Lucy, more than I can say. I knew, of course, that he was not doing too well with his health; we had postponed several times his appearance on Inworld Review, and possible tours of his regions on OSGrid. Maybe it was foolish, but I and didn't want to bother him while he was being treated; it's sad to think I didn't get to say one last 'wave' or word to him. 

That said, he leaves behind so many, many memories. Kind words, and funny. Beautiful landscapes, and inspired outfits. I know his family appreciated and loved him very much, I hope they know that his pals in the virtual also cared very much for him. May he roam serenely in that celestial landscape, and may his horizons always be filled with light.