Erica Ball, December 14, 1972 - July 8, 2007

My best friend in the world for many many years just died this morning. I received the dreaded call. I don't know what to do when a best friend dies so I am blogging and crying. When I left the company we both worked for, she wrote this William Ernest Henley poem, Invictus, on a lovely card along with a heartfelt message of her own and some Skinny Puppy lyrics on the psychedelic doodled cover. The poem, of course, she wrote from memory. The English Lit side of Erica always shines. I will forever keep this handmade card and forever keep her in my heart.

OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

I miss you already Erica.