I am writing this on the last day of February, 2011. It will be posted on the 55th anniversary of the birth of a unique person. He won’t turn 55 years old today, however. And that’s the bad news.
The good news is that Saul was. He was a good person and cared deeply about his daughters. He was a teacher. He was a religious leader. He even was a TV movie actor.
In the earlier days of the World Wide Web, long before the phrase “social media” was a term and it was considered okay to get to know people solely online, we “met” via a piece of software called ICQ that had a unique “random” feature. One of us, probably Saul , pushed the random button and found my profile and requested a chat. We hit it off immediately. We talked nearly every day (mostly about raising kids) for at least a year — possibly more — until he went off the grid and moved to a remote “ranch” in Nevada.
He loved the da Vinci painting Ginevra de’ Benci. He fiercely defended his faith. He didn’t always follow rules. He was a good son and a good father.
About a year ago we reconnected on Facebook, but he’d disappear for months at a time because of loss of Internet access or a misplaced or lost cell phone. Our last conversation was about how proud he was of his girls and that the middle daughter might go into education and he wanted her to talk to me since I’d been a teacher.
Every so often I’d check out one of his two Facebook profiles (yes, he was a rebel) to see what he was up to, or if he’d checked in recently. Today, knowing his birthday was coming up (remember this is being written February 28), I checked his profile and found a message from one of his daughters saying he’d died in December in a house fire.
I used to tease him about being older than I was. Very soon that won’t be the case. I’ll bypass him. I’m sure he’s laughing about that somewhere.
Since he’s devoutly Jewish, I suppose I shouldn’t think of him at that table in Heaven with my Uncle Don, JFK and my Dad, but if he’s there, he’s sure to be telling some fun stories.
On December 20th he posted a photo of a composite of the recent total lunar eclipse and tagged me as one of the phases. He died a week later. It’s comforting, somehow, to know he thought about me a week before he moved on.
(photos snagged from the Internet)
Clutch Cargo Lips 
THAT is the power of the internet.
I had ICQ! I was too shy to hang out with people I didn’t know, though (that came with the blog).
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What a beautiful tribute. I’m sorry he’s gone. I always wonder how we will find out about the deaths of people we know online…if someone will be able to access a Facebook page or blog to let friends know.
That second photo reminds me of Dewey, who died in October, whom I hadn’t seen in 15 years…
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I’m really sorry you have lost Saul, but glad you had him too.
(I also had ICQ)
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Then you, Mali and Bridget remember the ICQ “Oh oh!”?
Thanks for the comments. His facebook page has a couple tributes today. He was known for his humor.
We did actually meet once. He visited this area to see relatives and we had lunch near where I worked. Sushi, I think. He also brought his two rottweilers, Che and Buddy (?).
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Oh, and yes — IB I also wonder how people will learn about the passing of online friends.
I once heard second-hand about an online funeral of a woman in a 3D virtual world called V-Chat (created by Miccrosoft). This was in 1999. It made me wonder how the people I knew there would know if I died. But the world died before I did.
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This is Saul’s daughter. Someone told me they found this online looking up my dad’s name. My sisters and I remember him being really enthusiastic about ICQ in the 90’s, his two rottweilers were named Che and Fidel (although a later one was Buddy), and we miss him so much…this is a wonderful tribute.
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Thanks for commenting, Magda. Your dad was a special person.
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I just found this page and thought I would comment.I too knew Saul Korewa as we were the previous owners of the place in Pilot Valley that we sold to him.He was definitely a unique person, one like no other.He had so many different facets to him.He was caring(spoke highly of his daughters all the time),intelligent,quirky,free-spirited,etc.I saw him speed by us in his sports car about 3 weeks before his death.Very sad still…..
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Thanks for commenting Paula. I think of Saul often — always with sadness.
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Dona-lu, I love you…. and the way you are so out there in the virtual world. Who knew one could have V-friends? I sure didn’t. You have introduced me to so many important things. Thanks for being my friend. 🙂
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