Goodbye Lydia

[Dave Cullen]

Even though I had spoken with Lydia many many times in the early days of the forum, I finally got to meet her in person on Memorial Day weekend in Estes Park, Colorado in 2007.



I will miss you Lydia.

Wow. What a wonderful picture. You both look so happy. You both WERE/ARE happy so much of the time. I always picture both of you smiling. But it's making me cry again.

[Dave Cullen]

Another one of Lydia's legacies is the Kentucky Virtual Library



She is the one who was instrumental in securing the initial $300,000 funding from KDE for the Virtual Library. When the Department of Education could no longer pay that, she was the one who requested it from the KETS funds that are for the entire state. Some of the percentage of that goes back to the KDE and basically, most of the money that goes back to the KDE is now coming to the Virtual Library to cover the 312, 000 dollars. She is a real friend of the Virtual Library and has supported it from its inception.

Virtual Library Advisory Committee

Resolution to Honor Lydia Wells Sledge

Whereas  Lydia Wells Sledge, completing her tenure as Director of School Instructional Technology in the Office of Education Technology at the Kentucky Department of Education; and

Whereas  She supported the Kentucky Virtual Library (KYVL)  from its inception by appointing a staff member to represent the Kentucky Department of Education; and

Whereas  She was instrumental in securing funding for the Kentucky Virtual Library from the Kentucky Department of Education; and      

Whereas   She advocated within the Kentucky Department of Education for support for the Kentucky Virtual Library; and

Whereas   She is a strong supporter of education in Kentucky and saw the advantages of a statewide virtual library, and

Whereas  She is a loyal friend of the Kentucky Virtual Library and

Therefore for her strong support for the Kentucky Virtual Library while with the Kentucky Department of Education, Lydia Wells Sledge is honored with sincere appreciation and gratitude by the Virtual Library Advisory Committee.

Adopted by the Membership of the Kentucky Virtual Library (KYVL) Advisory Committee (VLAC) on August 15, 2003.

______________________________________

Enid G. Wohlstein, Director, Kentucky Virtual Library


http://www.kyvl.org/

wow. i didn't know all that. she talked a lot about her work there with me, but never once bragged about that. she was very modest.

[BayCityJohn]

Lydia was involved with the internet before we called it the internet.



1987

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FucrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=lwUGAAAAIBAJ&dq=lydia-wells-sledge&pg=5475%2C7330834

[neatfreak]

Ah, Lydia.

She and I had in common a passion for correct use of apostrophes that we laughed about often. We had a distant friendship but managed to get together last October in Kentucky, where she shared her love of horses and racing. She was proud of and knowledgeable about Frankfort, her home town. Her enthusiasm and laughter were quite contagious. What a delight it was to be with her! We had made tentative plans to do it again this spring, and she was going to come to my city in December to see Beyond Brokeback performed. One chair will be empty that night in her honor.

Her legacy is one of kindness, generosity, intelligence, and respect for everyone. She lifted up all in her sphere regardless of their station. Her example will be difficult to emulate, but we should try. We shall all miss her greatly.

[brokebacktom]

Its a sad day.

RIP!!!   

[Sharyn]

Sad to hear of Lydia's passing. Her bright light will continue to shine in all of us! 

Thanks for your vision and tenacity without which our collective experience of this film, the ensuing emotional upheaval it seemed to create, and how we grew together wouldn't have been shared and continue to be shared with millions of others!

We love you!!

Give a great big hug to Jackie (paintedshoes) for me!!

[Dave Cullen]

From the only time I was priviledged to share the same room with Lydia - at the BBQ in Colorado.  In fact, I believe had she not flown in and conspired with CactusGal, I think a bunch of Brokies would have missed out on the opportunity to meet Dave in person too.

haha, yes, it was her plan to kidnap me and take me up there, and i was so glad she did.

it was one of the happiest days of my life. i think it was the first time i ever met her in person, actually.

huh. she has the odd distinction of being there for two of my lifetime Top 5 days. i think the next time i saw her was the best day of my life (despite what happened later), "Oprah Day." she did so much for my book--basically working full-time for over a year, as a volunteer, since I was in debt and had no way to pay her and she didn't want anything. so when i got the oprah call, they said guests got four tickets to invite people to the audience. i begged for ten to invite my whole big family who live in chicago, and an eleventh for lydia, who flew to chicago to go. (and who was so reluctant to be a burden, i practically had to force her to let my sister pick her up from o'hare, which they had to literally drive past on the way to harpo.)

it was great to share that with her, and for my family to get a chance to know her. (they spent most of the day together, and i only had less than an hour with them, because it was in the middle of book tour and i had dash back to o'hare for an event in Miami.)

in the acknowledgements to my book, i had more than a hundred people to thank, so i cut the first draft down in half, keeping the names, but cutting the descriptions. for most people it was just their name (or group--like a shout-out to you brokies from the forum). but i carved this much space out for lydia:
 

Lydia Wells Sledge stands alone. She devoted a year of her life to serve as full time unpaid reader, proofer, fact-checker, researcher, organizer, assistant, and tackler of every conceivable tough task. She claims to have enjoyed it.

we spoke several times a day, quite frequently, and when i got on a tear, i could whip off a dozen emails with facts to check and blind alleys for her to look into. she tracked them down, tirelessly. i really could not have done the book without her.

[Melisande]

I don't really know everything that Lydia did for the forum, because she just did it, quietly and efficiently. She was the Project Manager - I think. I remember she accepted the position with the stipulation that she could quit after 3 months. How lucky we are that she didn't quit.

We met only once, when she visited San Francisco, but we talked on the phone and e-mailed all the time. She was always upbeat and funny and sensible about our various trials and tribulations. I'll miss her so much. Who will I laugh with about Dave, now?

It was an honor and a pleasure knowing her.

[Dave Cullen]

I feel like I need a Downton Abbey break to put me in a Lydia frame of mind.

[michaelflanagansf]

One of the things that I remember most about Lydia was her sense of humor - she had a very good one.  And she also had very good common sense, which, unlike the term itself, is not very common.  And she was extraordinarily kind.

Bless you Lydia.

[Dave Cullen]

I don't really know everything that Lydia did for the forum, because she just did it, quietly and efficiently. She was the Project Manager - I think. I remember she accepted the position with the stipulation that she could quit after 3 months. How lucky we are that she didn't quit.

Ah, that was the title, and I forgot about that stipulation! I felt slightly unethical agreeing to it, knowing full well that I intended to use all my powers of whining, coaxing and cajoling to extend that three months indefinitely. (I think I made a few similar deals with you--haha. Thank God neither of you held me to them.)

I remember you making that comment, too, which I think is a good thing. She just took care of all that stuff. I was desperate to have her whenever that was (spring of the first year?)--I guess maybe it was right after the Variety ad (it's a blur) and we had so many things on the dock ahead, like the book and the videos/libraries project and TDS and tech issues, and re-organizing the site (into the five sections we have now), and the redesign of how the site would look, and updating The Guide, and creating all those other web pages and maintaining them, and creating our store and registering the forum with the state and creating a checking account, and making sure the finances were done and finding a new web hosting company and . . . I don't know, those were just off the top of my head just now.

There were just a MILLION little things and big groups of things to be handled, and looming, and Meli was overwhelmed with moderating issues, and I was a year late on my book, and my agent was begging me to close the forum down because of the time it was taking, and I was literally going to have to do that if Lydia did not agree.

For those long, hard early years, Meli and Lydia were my rocks. The forum is only here because of them. (Also, much thanks to Linda who came in as relief pitcher, and continues to keep this place running.)

After a few years, she was kind of worn out, and when I had begged her one time too many, I knew I finally had to let her go.

We met only once, when she visited San Francisco, but we talked on the phone and e-mailed all the time. She was always upbeat and funny and sensible about our various trials and tribulations. I'll miss her so much. Who will I laugh with about Dave, now?

Haha. I know! I could tell when I'd been insufferable sometimes, and I'd feel guilty, but the one thing I figured was at least you two had each other to complain to.

[BayCityJohn]

I was going through emails from Lydia. There are hundreds over the past 6 years and I saved them all.

In the early discussions for the Beyond Brokeback play, we talked about naming the 6 characters in the script. Greg Hinton wanted to honor some of the people who helped make the forum what it was.

Lydia didn't know that Greg and I picked one of the names without Lydia knowing about it.

This is from the script:

BEYOND BROKEBACK
The Impact of a Film
Written by
Members of the Ultimate Brokeback Forum

With Original Songs by Shawn Kirchner


  Adapted for the Stage

by

Gregory Hinton


Table Reading #5
Autry Theater
December 6th

The character names in Beyond Brokeback are in homage to several respected members of the Ultimate Brokeback Forum website.  Each “character” will interpret the words and emotions of many different bloggers.  The screen name and page number of each member follows the speech in parentheses and should not be spoken.

LIGHTS UP:

On an empty stage is a row of theater seats and a lectern off to the side.

RANCE, BETTY, PAUL, LYDIA, and JACKIE enter from stage right and take their seats.  DAVE CULLEN enters from stage left and takes his place behind the lectern, snaps on a small reading light, and addresses the Brokeback Mountain audience.

[BayCityJohn]

Lydia posted a picture on Fb just a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't even had a chance to ask her about it.

It's a portrait of her from 1960.  She would have been 16 here.

[jack]

for once i am at a loss for words.  although i didn't socialize with lydia, i worked with her in small ways on so many projects and pieces of the forum   exchanges with lydia were always so intelligent and drama free, and laughs came so easily, like sparks from striking  flint.

i may have even at times asked her to intercede with dave when we were at cross purposes.  i alsways felt like she listened to my opinion and valued it, but i suspect she made everyone she interacted with feel that way.  this is far from the first death of longtime forum members, but lydia's passing makes very real that we take each other for granted far too much.

[killersmom]

Lydia was one of my best friends on the forum. We worked together a lot on Beyond Brokeback. Lydia was the instigator
and managing editor of the book project

I was hoping to see her later this year in Indianapolis.

I was lucky to be able to meet her in person more than once. She took me to my first opera in San Francisco. We had a wonderful time.

This is a picture taken the day Lydia, John and Jonathan attended the opera here in San Francisco. (I am sorry, I cannot remember if Michael attended with them or not.)

We met for one of our famous brunches we have when Brokies get together in SF.



John, Jonathan, Lydia and Michael