A close friend of mine has died on the 3rd of August.........I will miss her very much.    Things didn't end well the last (and unexpectedly the final) time I hung out with her,  but I was so shocked to find out through facebook that she has officially passed on.

I've known her for nearly 15 years, we had a lot of fun in the past.  Back in early 2005  whenever we had the spare times, I used to bring a bunch of animes to her apartment,  and we would have a marathon watching them all day. 
 
I'd always share my drawings to her and she would adore each and every one of my work, and would always encouraged me to follow my passion for drawing mangas and have the whole world see them.  She would get really  excited seeing me succeeding with my work.  

I will miss the time we both share and enjoy our same preferences and fangirl over hot characters.  Including seeing her hilarious reactions while watching animes together.

 I will cherish the times we went to Yaoi-Con and enjoyed the whole event together.     Including the times we went  to San Francisco to Japan town and enjoy our times eating and shopping there.   

We had a lot of loud arguments here and there a bunch of times,  but even friends fight just like families usually do. 

Unlike many people who gave up and forgotten about me........she was the only person in my whole life that never did that.   She even did her best to help me when I needed her.    She was there when my beloved cat took her last breath.

She understood about my terrible past and she lets me be myself around her and always listen to my stories over and over.......I hope I showed her some appreciations for everything she tried for me.


There was the time we stopped talking to each other for a few years for personal reasons.  Then I found out her health went bad and had a heart problem.  Then later in 2014 everything had  gotten worse for her. Her and her children, and grandson became homeless and ended up staying with a few friends (including me)   I let her stay at my tiny apartment for a several months (not to mention her grandson started staying as well and had to skip school for 3 whole months!) 

After seven whole months of staying with me, she couldn't find ANY apartment!(One of the hard part was that her credit was bad.)  And sadly I couldn't let her continue staying with me because I wasn't allowed to have extra people staying because  that violates the policy of the apartment I'm living and I'll end up being homeless as well.     

My poor friend had been through so much for the past several years especially going through so much pain with her health and going in and out of the hospitals.   Fortunately one of her other friends was able to let her  and her younger daughter to rent a room and her grandson was able to stay with his mother and her girlfriend (my friend's older daughter).      I hoped that my friend would finally get back on her feet, but that never happened.    Her health kept getting worse and ended up staying in the hospital for a few months.    Back when I first met her,  she used to be energetic  and used to move around a lot.    But when her health got so bad, she had a heart attack and a couple of mild strokes and became badly crippled.        So....... after these past couple of months ......she went back to the hospital one last time........and according to her older daughter.......her life ended.    



I will miss you Gemma (Sakura) Mcneil. I am TRULY sorry for all the bad  lucks you went through! Can't believe luck never shines enough for you during your final years.   

You didn't deserve to go through that, so unfair!! 

I can't believe you're completely  gone now........and at such a young age too! 

 I will cherish the good memories we had together.  

Just like you cherished my artwork, and the Japanese nickname I picked for you.