former WP member "ASS-P" passed away yesterday, jan. 4, '21

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Sad to hear about ASS-P I remember him posting.

I bought my Burial Plot and Headstone.

when i shuffle off my mortal coil, i suspect i could not be bothered as to what to do with my former body.

There was a (rather unpleasant) UK comedian, Bernard Manning, who when asked "What would you prefer, Bernard - burial or cremation?" replied: "Surprise me".

for many, death is the ultimate surprise, one minute they are awake and the next they're someplace they don't remember being. i am sure that Walter was surprised when he woke up dead and found himself in the elysian fields.

Oh Walter...

All you ever wanted was college classes, computer time and to be treated with respect and dignity.

I was hoping he wasn't suffering because of COVID-19 outbreaks. He hadn't PMed in a while. Glad he died in his sleep. At least it was in a bed, and another human noticed. Not in an abandoned building two years later.

My shelter working friends say Autism and or mental illness and or chronic severe physical issues are a brutal combination. Throw in being older and male, there isn't a lot of help offered. Mostly get you on SSI and a room to warehouse you.

Walter was tenacious. He never stopped wanting his classes and getting on the internet. How many times did his things get stolen, and he managed to scrounge up a cell phone? Or trying to get his college classes? Maybe he should have focused on other things, but those wants kept him going.

He had huge blind spots dealing with people, and he was his own worse enemy. How much of that was life experiences or Autism, I don't know. We all got our demons we wrestle with.

Walter, I hope you are in the cushy-est library, with unlimited computer time, surrounded by kind people who don't judge if you can't read the social cues. That you finally found the peace you never had on Earth.

Thank you AB for letting us know. It's not an easy thing to find out and handle from a far.

because of my own medical expenses i had to pass on buying his ashes from the mortuary, so likely he will be dumped in the pacific sometime next week. that was one of the places he said he wouldn't mind being, absent his "stomping grounds" in new york.

Having to "buy" someone's ashes still seems so wrong and "off" to me, however I look at it. I believe that on the higher plane where he is now, such mercenary things don't exist, and that all excluded humans and ill-treated animals are treated with the dignity they were denied in this life.

I've only just found out that ASS-P has died. I do remember his posts and how much he wanted to go to college. I'm sorry that he never got the chance to achieve that goal. He clearly had a very hard life and yet he tried to stay positive as much as he could. At least he's at peace now. And credit to auntblabby for all his efforts in trying to fulfil Walter's last wishes.

Wouldn't it be great if we start a collge fund in his name?

/\I think he would love that.

I am so sorry, how old was he?

I'm in.

I wouldn't have a clue how to go about it. Maybe there's someone here who would know.

The pacific is a peaceful place to be.


College fund: A local suggested we look into that to start up in a friends name here. No one has acted on it yet so not sure, but the first place I'd inquire would be at the financial aid office of a college/university where bursaries and scholarships are available to be applied for. Those people might even be responsible for creating such funds, and if not they could probably tell you what type of banker/lawyer/accountant to approach with that sort of business to get the ball rolling. I know for us here we'd just stroll on into the financial aid office on campus and tell them we want to start a fund of some sort in our friends name who earned 2 degrees there - one of which was trail blazing stuff that created UBC's Indigenous Studies program and then go from there w/ the info and feedback they gave us. That's where I'd start with this.

Things to consider: If it's to be an annual thing forever, from what I understand there needs to be a large amount of money in place that's generating enough investment income to support the annual disbursement. ie If you wanted it to be a $1000/year amount awarded to a deserving student facing adversity and financial hardship - or even homelessness & yet they still find a will & way to study, and some long term stable investment paid a rate of 2.5% return annually, you would need a fund comprised of more than $40,000.00 in the account - 2.5% annual return would cover the $1000 disbursement into perpetuity, but there would likely be management/account fees, hence more than $40K. And that's just with a guess at what a stable long term annual return might look like in some low risk investment or another. (2.5%)

Perhaps raising $40K+ is far too ambitious an undertaking? At half that you could fund half the amount ($500 annually) - and perhaps that's still pie in the sky kind of numbers.. however: Raising $500-1000 once is maybe not too ambitious of a goal, and the $ could be disbursed as a one time thing to an applicant in dire need - possibly a mature student over the age of 50 who could never afford to splash out $500-1000 on taking a course or two due to poverty level income and a lifetime of precarious housing situations, literally ensure that someone like ASS-P gets to live out his dream of attending college even to take just one class on campus before they die. Or maybe it goes to some bright young kid and helps change the entire trajectory of their life's path so that they get the foot in the door of a college institution that snowballs into them finding their way to a different life? I dunno. Details schmetails, just some rambling thoughts of the moment.

chances are he'd be sayin' "fat lotta good that would do ME!" but that would be a good idea nonetheless. his story would make a dramatic backdrop to any proposal.

he was a few days away from turning 61.