KissiTulips Alpha Memorial @ Sapphire Beach 16/04/2023

Sunday was a bit of a day for me. I had the great, and sad, opportunity to play a minuscule role in a memorial service for a friend of mine. Normally, a loss like this might not find it's way into an SL Music blog, but my friend was not normal in any sense of the word. KissiTulips Alpha was an extraordinary human, and SL resident, who made everyone who knew her life much better. It was entirely proper this memorial was musical at its core. Kissi was a blogger and her co-writers at The Toggle For Music blog, put aside their shock and grief and covered this monumental event in great detail here.

I wanted to spend my ink, and your time, with a little more context and perhaps a slightly wider perspective. You see, I've been to a few SL music events over the years. I've been to shows with 1 audience member (counting me) and things where the full sim was full, and I was clicking TP over and over again. What I hadn't experienced before Kissi's memorial was being in a sim with over 100 AVs for 3 hours. Certainly, some people came, and some people went, but hundreds came by to pay tribute to Kissi.

And this was possible because John Sinclair and Claudine Sinclair-Jewell graciously donated a custom built venue above their Sapphire Beach club for all of us to get together to share our grief, our fond memories, and our smiles. It’s difficult for me to really share the healing that was going on. Certainly, in local, and more so in the steady stream of IMs throughout the afternoon. People sharing stories and memories of Kissi, her love of music, her joy, the passionate requests she dedicated to her great love Dwermer Alpha. This gorgeous venue was built in a star theme. It was as if we were all able to be just a bit closer to Kissi for one last time. The touch of the K in the sky was sublime in its presentation.

Even at her memorial, Kissi was committed to helping others. A long time hostess, manager, blogger, and fund raiser, Kissi's death brought together the best of the SL Music world, who stepped up to support one of Kissi's favorite causes, "Feed A Smile". This long running and truly inspirational charity raises money to feed school children. In typical fashion, Kissi had built her SL around kind, loving and generous friends, who donated enough money to feed the children in the school for 3 full days. This is exactly the kind of impact she had on everyone blessed enough to know her.

I mentioned earlier, the beautiful sentiments in my IMs. This one struck me as capturing the experience. It’s from one of the performers, and I thank her for her permission to share this.

"the first hour was immobilizing

the second was recovery

and then I had to think about who was here

and Kissi and I spoke about everyone she loved

and they were all here

then she became an inspiration

that's a life worth celebrating"

I know more than one person was moved to tears, including at least one of the DTS staff present. SecondLife, where the bodies are fake and the emotions are real. Particularly, as evidenced throughout the out pouring of love that touched everyone who was able to spend just a few minutes at this most amazing SL Music event.

KissiTulips (Susan to her RL family) Alpha, "that's a life worth celebrating"