A Window For Vera

So I was shocked this afternoon to discover about the death of fellow Blipper and mutual subscriber Veraluna. I haven't been keeping up with Blip very well and it had been a while since I had read the Blip Blog, which is where I saw the short note about Vera's death. That took me to Vera's last blip, back on January 6th where I found in the comments the sad news that Vera had died of a heart attack on January 7th. Only this weekend it did cross my mind that I hadn't seen any of Vera's blips from St Petersburg for a while but I got distracted before I could search her out. Or I would have found out the news then, as it was over a week ago that Katherineellis broke the news about what had happened with a moving tribute. Unlike Katherine, I never met Vera, but we exchanged messages via Blip about our different cities. She blipped the view from her flat many times and for me those views of ordinary life, so recognisably similar to flats across the world and yet also typically Russian, are the strongest memory I have of her daily blips of her family life. She was surely far too young to have a heart attack and had three young daughters who also regularly featured in her blips. It is so sad. Strange that I should feel so shaken by the death of someone in another country that I never met, and didn't really know very well at all. And yet, through the connections we made through Blipfoto it feels like I have lost a friend.
Others have written more timely and more moving tributes already but this is for Vera, the view from my window this evening in Edinburgh as night falls. I feel so sorry for her young family and for her friends and send them my love and condolences.