R.I.P. @beeber

In August of 2021, @beeber joined the Hive blockchain. I remember when she came into TheTerminal Discord her first week to ask questions about Hive, wanting to learn the etiquette and workings of the platform. It was delightful talking to her — she asked good questions and absorbed everything like a sponge absorbs water. And her personality was gentle and charming, too! She was quite fun, whether we were discussing the proper way to source photos, or the idiosyncrasies of life.

Beeber lived in Austria, in the southeastern state of Styria. As such, she spoke German as her mother tongue. She was more proficient in English than she gave herself credit for knowing because she was such a humble, down-to-earth person. We occasionally used the translator-bot in our Discord for difficult words, but it wasn't necessary very often. She shared a closeup shot of her keyboard one time with me in DM, to show the keys that are not on my English keyboard, such as the German letter Eszett ß and letters like Ü with the umlaut above.

She had not been on Hive but a couple months when she followed a link in TheTerminal Discord and went to Dreemport Discord. That's where @shadowspub hosts "Pimp Your Post Thursday" (PYPT), the longest-running Discord 'radio show' for Hive posts. Beeber quietly attended a couple of shows to learn how it works before she became brave enough to speak. Even then, she apologized in advance for her lack of skills with English, but we understood every word she said, very clearly. 😁 She had a voice that was both gentle and sweet, and we loved hearing her speak. I'm not sure how many shows she attended before she stopped due to time constraints with other activities, but it was quite a number of shows and we always enjoyed having her in attendance!

Beeber never left TheTerminal Discord, but her visits became less often as she acclimated to using Hive. I saw her appear in LadiesOfHive and other places, but I think she was more active in the Ecency Discord than any other. She really enjoying using Ecency, both on their website and their mobile-app. After spreading her cheer and assistance in the Ecency Discord for a while, she was made a Moderator.

Then, in February 2022, she sent me a DM on Discord. She thought it might be nice to have a special Community Page on Hive where people could share posts about people and animals they've loved and lost. She wondered if I considered it a good idea. I immediately told her it was an excellent idea, and encouraged her to proceed with it! We discussed several possible names for the community, and she finally decided on "Hive Memorial Forest" as the one that best embodied her vision.

Sometime later, I was designing some banners for use promoting the Community and chose a photograph of an angel from Pixabay. Beeber was thrilled with the angel, and remarked that "he" is beautiful. I thought it looked like a female angel. Then, I learned that in German, the generic word for "angel" ("Engel") is presumed to be masculine in gender. Most angels in cemeteries are depicted as female, though, and I thought Beeber's comment that "angels have to be female" was cute. Such was the joy in talking to her. 😊

So, there is definitely another female angel now, and her name is Beeber. 😢 ✌️

Several people have posted to her community since it was founded, but it never gained the great widespread usage for which she hoped, yet she was immensely glad it was there and being used by some. And fittingly, that is where @reiseamateur published notice of Beeber's passing. Thanks to @melinda010100 for sending me a DM on Discord as soon as she found the post, rather than letting me stumble across it some hours later. We are very grateful to her friends @music-nature, @richie8012, and @reiseamateur for alerting us to the passing of this kind and gentle soul. Thank you! 🙏