I first met Niki Massey several years ago — I think it was at Convergence that this force of nature asserted herself to me. She got this response a lot, I suspect; you’d meet her and be staggered by this sassy, loud, laughing, determined woman, and you’d know she was going to be whirling back to bounce off you again in the near future.

Except now she’s not.

Niki died unexpectedly in her sleep this weekend, and now I’m seeing this far-flung community of skeptics and atheists, and also all of her friends in the Minneapolis area, simply reeling in dismay. She was too young. She was too fierce. This can’t have happened. But it did, because death doesn’t give a damn about what you want.

All I can say is that I will remember Niki. I can’t help it, she won’t let me, she was unforgettable.