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It’s still so hard to believe that Servetus is gone. This week I saw the pictures of RA in his pink evening jacket and thought how much Serv would have appreciated them. (He is looking very handsome, again!) It might even have lead to one of her famous “Places I would like to kiss Richard Armitage” posts, if we were lucky!

After I fell hard into Armitage-mania through the wonderful “North and South” (as did Serv, years before), Me + Richard Armitage was the first blog I ever commented on, around 8 years ago. I found the discussions so interesting that I just had to jump in and be a part of them. And then when that wasn’t enough, I took the plunge and started blogging, myself.

As others have said, Serv was very generous with promoting new bloggers, myself included, by giving a shout-out through her site. Even before I started blogging, I sent her some funny Armitage-related pics which she tweeted out and emailed me the reactions. And knowing I wasn’t on Twitter, she later forwarded me tweets about one of my April Fool’s Day posts, too, so that I could enjoy them.

Serv was such a good writer, always backed up by knowledge, that she made me want to be a better writer and blogger. In fact, when she died, part of me actually thought, “What’s the point of writing posts when she isn’t there to read them anymore?” But then it occurred to me that she would want us all to get our mojo back and start blogging more often. That is what she wanted for herself, too.

Serv was always searching for the “flow”. She watched Armitage intently on screen and on stage, trying to understand where it came from for him. More recently, when she saw “Rocketman”, she was fascinated by the creativity she saw Elton John (played by Taron Egerton) exhibit, despite the adversity experienced in his life. So fascinated was she that she went far out of her comfort zone to attend a rock concert, going to see him live… postponed due to the pandemic, but she eventually was able to go. She convinced me that it was a show I should see, too, as I’ve been a fan since my teenage years but had never seen him live. And I was really glad I went!

Sharing videos and links to RA fiction was something Serv was happy to do, also. She really wanted to give other Armitage fans access to his work (and to others’ work about him), out of generosity but also I think to enliven the online discussion. It was great to be able to watch and talk about Berlin Station episodes before they actually arrived in Canada!

With her many years of fandom experience, she was an empathetic listening ear (via email) when I was experiencing some fandom issues. She had good advice for me, having been through much worse in her time.

Serv was someone I really admired. She was the smartest person I ever “met”, although I only knew her on blogs and through email. My family all know her as “The Professor”. Did you know, by the way, that Serv could read a book per day?! She and my older son even had a conversation through me, exchanging opinions on various war movies worth watching.

We had lots of discussions about movies, she and I both enjoying solo movie-going… although we didn’t always enjoy the same films. I appreciated that we could still have lively discussions, regardless of differing opinions. Some readers seemed to think that Serv didn’t tolerate differing opinions, but I believe that she was most annoyed by incorrect assumptions stated as facts. And ad hominem attacks. I appreciated her stance on that.

I also appreciated her keen sense of humour, sometimes silly and sometimes sharp or dark. In late March, I was thinking about her potentially upcoming April Fool’s Day post … but of course there wouldn’t be one this year.

Hearing that Serv had died was such a shock. It’s made me really think about how short life can be and how quickly things can change. It has prompted me to finally put my foot down with someone at work who really takes advantage of my skills and my time — of which we have so little. Maybe this will also be the push I need to get me back to blogging again.

Thanks for all that you were, Servetus. You will be missed.