[Gpdd] Announcement: Re: Alge's last journey

[Guineapigfilms at aol.com]

We get the GPDD in Digest form, so hadn't gotten any news about Alge. But 
about an hour ago, I got a sharp sense of foreboding, and felt that I needed 
to know something about how she was doing. I went to the GPDD site 
(something I never do), in the hope of reassurance.

I organized the February archive by date, started looking towards the 
bottom, and then...my heart just about stopped.

I could no longer see the screen, the tears were coming so fast.

How can it be that such a big heart, a heart that was a friend to all of us 
and to all of our piggies, has been stilled? How can such a thing happen?

We have lost someone very precious and dear to us all. Alyssa and her 
movies have lost their biggest fan and their staunchest supporter. 

Alge was a wonderful friend. She emailed us (especially Alyssa) all the 
time, for many years. We knew she was chronically ill and, from time to time, 
she made reference to her ailments (for one thing, she was waiting for a lung 
transplant), but she rarely dwelled on such topics. No, it was all about 
the piggies, and she was always complimenting Alyssa on her movie, Carrot 
Wars. To me, it was wonderful that Alge was so encouraging to my daughter, a 
young person, and cheering her on from day to day. I still have the email that 
Alge sent when G-Force first came out:

Hello Alyssa!!!? I miss emailing you but there never seems to be time. As 
for
G-Force, I'm certain that they're plagiarizing Carrot Wars or that, at 
least,
it was their inspiration! Delighted that GP's are getting some attention
these days. For the longest time, I believe that Carrot Wars was the only 
US made
movie about GPs.
???? "We stand on the shoulders of those who've gone before us!!"

Alge and the Piggy Pirate Crew

It's amazing, the power of this listserv. Peter Gurney was a personal 
friend of mine, and I would never have met him and gotten to know him, if Alyssa 
and I hadn't subscribed to the GPDD. And then, there was Alge. 

Although she'd lived an extremely interesting life filled with adventures, 
her world had gotten much smaller in the past several years, as her health 
situation worsened. Her beloved guinea pigs (first, the Jolly Rodents and 
then Cap'n Jack Sparrow and Barnacle Bill) helped fill the hole in her life, 
and so did her friends on the GPDD.

There are no words to describe the terrible emptiness I feel. For those of 
us on the GPDD who counted on Alge to show up and give us her very humane, 
very compassionate, very creative "take" on every issue concerning guinea 
pigs, it is like we have lost a family member.

There is no greater honor that we can give Alge now than to carry on her 
love of guinea pigs, and her basic human decency. It is such a blessing that 
her piggies are going to a good home. I'm sure that it was so hard for Alge 
to leave them, loving them as much as she did.

There are really no words to say what we are all feeling right now. This is 
indeed an irony, since our dear friend Alge was so good with words.

One thing we know: Alge is now at peace. And my fondest hope is that she is 
now reunited with her darling Jolly Rodents.

Love and WHEEEEEEEEEEEPS,

Nancy (& Alyssa, who is grief-stricken, too)
http://www.carrotwars.com