Bren Ryder

“She worked hard and was a nice person.”

The eulogy of the person I used to be:

Dear Brenda:

You have been a part of me for so long now. Prior to this moment I didn’t even know I could function without you. With an uncanny ability to wile away the time, you’ve inspired the most motivated person to sit and relax. I will take inspiration from your stick-to-it-iveness. The way you stuck with dead-end jobs and bad relationships was awe-inspiring. The hard work you did to line the pockets of unappreciative bosses was pure martyrdom. You spent more than you earned and saved nothing - living on faith alone. A faith that we could all use a healthy dose of every now and again.

Brenda, you started some really incredible projects and accumulated an impressive amount of debt doing so. Your methods were typically similar to everything you did in the past. So consistent. I will miss the way you stretched 2 hours of work into 4 hours. I’ll miss that black hole that sucked up all of your time. I’ll miss your inability to ask others for help and your penchant for working solo. You never were much of a team-player.

Most of all, I’ll miss the way you could work your ass off and still come away with an income below poverty level. The way you could make a sure-fire income generating business into a voluntary hobby was your finest work to date. We are sad that you are leaving us with the debt of the past, but confident that it will disappear nearly as quickly as it was accumulated.

You were a very important part of my adult development and now that you are gone I will never be the same again.

Love,
Bren