Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Roy Hilbinger, 1953-2020, R.I.P.


(I know, I know. I haven't blogged in months. Facebook and other interests have pretty much taken the place of blogging in my life. But today's post actually concerns someone I met via the blogs, so posting about him here seemed all too appropriate.)

Today I learned that my friend Roy Hilbinger died. Roy and I met online twelve years ago, via something called "Theme Thursday." No, we never met face to face, but I can proudly say we were friends. Not "blogger friends." Not "Facebook friends." Friends. In fact, roughly ten years ago, he was going through a very difficult time, and he and I briefly considered having him stay with me until he could get back on his feet.

Ten years ago, in response to the chain-letter "awards" bloggers often gave each other, I created "The Silver Fox's THRUST HOME Award," given to the authors of specific blog posts that truly impressed me. In ten years, I've only given out four or five of these awards. The very first one was given to Roy, for this post, and his notification of his winning it was proudly placed on his own blog's sidebar, and kept there for ten years.

THE THRUST HOME AWARD

The Thrust Home Award
Given by The Silver Fox for meritorious blogging

He was a well-read, well-spoken, multi-faceted man of compassion and conscience, a man filled with creativity and integrity. He also had great taste in music... meaning his musical tastes were very similar to my own.

The world needs more people like him, but now, instead, we have one fewer. Life is rarely fair.


Happy Trails, you old hippie.


Thanks for your time.

13 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks. I pretty much just expanded the comment I left on your Facebook page. I am really torn up about this.

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  2. I am bereft anew each time I think of Roy's passing or I read another tribute. He was the best of us.

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    1. He and I clicked on so many levels as bloggers when we met twelve years ago. Then we became Facebook friends in January of 2019 and I learned we had even more in common.

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  3. I remember reading comments from Roy. A fitting tribute. I've missed you terribly. I hope you are well. I know this is late but, I haven't been myself lately.

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    1. Hi, True. I just saw and approved your comment today, so I can also apologize for being "late." I've missed you, too. What's been wrong?

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  4. Hello David. Remember me? I deleted my blog after my best friend died in 2013. Just didn't have the heart for it anymore. BUT...since then I have kept busy writing and have written a book. Not only did I write it, I found a publisher who loved it and published it! It was just published in September the day before my birthday. How cool is that? Further, the publisher has entered it in the International Thriller Writer's Best First Novel contest for 2020. It may very well lose, but at least it's in the race. I write under the pen-name RLM Cooper. The book is titled "Legacy 627" and is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, etc. I have a blog currently on Wordpress, but I don't really like that site and I'm seriously considering starting a new blog here at Blogger under the RLM Cooper name. Right now I'm in the process of writing a sequel to the book and that is taking a bit of time out of my day, but I'm seriously going to look into setting up that new blog here. I hope you see this message. I've missed you.

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  5. My email address is still the same: rlmclax@olypen.com
    Drop me a line if you feel like it.

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