People who shaped who I became, and who are no longer here to read what they made possible.
These are tributes to people who mattered. Family, mentors, friends, colleagues, and the occasional stranger whose kindness or example landed in my life at the right moment. Some I knew for decades. Some I knew for an afternoon. All of them left something behind that's still working on me.
Writing tributes is its own kind of work. It's not about getting the obituary facts right. It's about saying what the person actually meant, while there's still someone left who remembers the specifics. The longer I do this, the more I think it's one of the most important things a writer can do.
If you've lost someone and you're thinking about writing a tribute of your own, these may be useful as examples of how it can be done. Not the only way. Just one writer's attempts to do the people justice.
