Leslie Harpold passed away this weekend.
I was a big fan of hoopla.com for years but was too shy to ever email her to say that I did, until it got stolen out from under her. I had a friend working for NetSol at the time and pulled some strings; she never did get it back but always remembered that I tried. After that we kept touch very casually, mainly through LiveJournal, where she gave the best advice about all sorts of things and was just all around awesome. On a bitter cold day in January, when I was frustrated and hopeless, the saddest I've ever been, she came through for me unexpectedly with kindness and love. I don't exaggerate when I say I don't know where I'd be today without her.
As Kevin said, "Leslie, I’m sorry that we didn’t get to meet in person, but I’m really thankful that you were in my life, and that you shared yours with me."
More Leslie on Flickr, LiveJournal and Vox; lots of memories from Kevin, Mike, Merlin, Kathryn, Lance, Dan, Matt and MetaFilter. Kevin's keeping a list of the dozens upon dozens of tributes at del.icio.us/kfan/leslieharpold/.
I keep being amazed by how many people Leslie knew and how many never got to meet her in person. Every time I get a referral from one of her free MT blog templates (circa 2001) where she included my blog in her default links, I'll think of her.
http://harpold.com/homepaged/loggy/white2.html