...

A few years ago I received a call from a colleague telling me that a certain animator had passed.

"We lost XXXXX", he said.

Immediate condolences were offered. After a minute of the usual questions, I thanked him for calling and admitted that I never even met the person and, not to speak ill of the dead, didn't at all care for their films. He laughed and agreed on the last point and voiced what I already respected on the first -you may not have known this person but they were very important to our community and now an important of us all is missing.

I did know Emru Townsend. Even if I tried I couldn't think of a negative thing to say about him. Maybe that he never visited me in New York. And being Canadian is, at least, questionable.

When a friend texted me last night of his worsening condition, I immediately thought of that call from years ago.

Emru was a part of our global family. Not just through his publications, or through his well considered love of animation and graphics but as kind and bright person.

The world is a better place than it was when he was born into it. This morning, we all wake a little worse off.