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  • Richard Willis May 28, 2025 at 3:21pm

    Today by Kathleen David, Beneficiary

    Peter David my husband

    Eulogy-noun
    Plural eulogies.
    1. a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially a set oration in honor of a deceased person.
    2. high praise or commendation.

    Peter didn’t like tomatoes at all, but he liked ketchup a lot.

    Peter and I met at one of the last Atlanta Fantasy Faires. He bought a puppet which came with a thirty-minute lesson on how to operate it. The con committee told me that Peter had bought a puppet and wanted the lesson that came with it. I was on a time crunch because I had a show to stage manage that evening. Late afternoon found me behind his table teaching him and his daughter Shana how to operate a hand and rod puppet. I was focused on the lesson not all the things he was signing. He had a line for most of the time he was there but managed to find some time so I could show him what to do. I made sure Shana, who has a knack for it, knew what to do. I ran off to do my show. After the show and going out for a drink with the gang, I came home very sleepy. As I was getting ready for bed, I looked at my bookshelves and there at the top of the stack was Q-in-Law by Peter David. I slapped my head and said, “Oh THAT Peter David.”

    After that we were convention buddies. We would catch up on each other’s lives and families and then move onto another topic that interested us. Then we started talking on AOL messenger and found we had feelings for one another.

    Peter and I officially got together in 1998. I moved up to his neck of the woods as Atlanta had nothing that paid well for me to do.

    Since we had spent so much time talking on AOL, we knew each other better than we would have. When we got together it just felt right and as the years pasted even more right that we were together.

    I miss some of the insane conversations we had that went from point A to point M eventually getting back to point B. We could talk about everything under the sun. Yes, he was as funny as he was at conventions.

    Conventions were where PETER DAVID attended. He seemed larger than life. He always loved talking to the fans. He said more than once, “Writing is a solitary profession. You write and hope other people will like what you write.” At conventions were the fans wanting to talk to him and tell him what he wrote that meant a lot to them.

    I remember one young man, who found out much later in life he was dyslexic, saying the Starfleet Academy books taught him to read and made him want to read. Other people have used the vows in Imzadi for their weddings. Everyone had a favorite story or series, and Peter would talk to them about it and answer questions the fans had. Sometimes it was something he came up with on the spot.

    His ability to make gay characters just another human being was magical. He was a strong supporter of the LBGTQ+ community as am I. My daughter is a lesbian with a wonderful partner. They support each other through all kinds of situations. Peter was very proud of what she has accomplished. He was very proud of all his daughters' achievements of which there are many.

    Peter is complimented how he wrote women who sounded like real women. He has gone on record that he feels there is no difference between the genders. He wrote them as human beings with their own faults and foibles along with their strength of character and the ability to rise to the occasion.

    I have the good luck of being his first reader. I would give him my honest opinion as to what worked and didn’t work for me. Some suggestions he would take, some he would clarify, and others he left alone. He appreciated the input.

    He would find ideas for writing in the strangest of places. We would be driving along and he would say, “What do you think of this idea for a story?” We would discuss it and either the idea was abandoned, or he would get home and hop onto the computer.

    He liked cats. It wasn’t that he disliked dogs, he just preferred cats. And they liked him. He is survived by Fig, Inky, Mew, and Phoebe.

    Peter encouraged me to build puppets. He would push me to work on puppets because he believed in me and my skill. He also trusted my ability to make costumes. Sometimes he didn’t give me much time to create what he came up with. That was Okay because I love a challenge. There were many a costume that was finished at the convention.

    He believed in my ability to write and encouraged me to do so. We wrote a Ghostbusters comic entitled “What the Samhain is going on here”. I wrote it and Peter cleaned it up for me. Since then, I have been writing short stories for various anthologies. Sometimes under an alias.

    Peter is my soulmate. I am not saying we didn’t have disagreements, we did but we worked through them. We learned about each other to the point we could say half a sentence and the other would be filling in the next. We were very comfortable with each other. No need to put up masks.

    I have drug resistant depression along with situational depression (I think you can guess the situation). Peter helped me get help so I could be me again not the sad rage monster I had become. I hope after I get everything done, I will no longer have situational depression. But there is a lot to do.

    Peter will be remembered by many people for many things. I will remember my steadfast husband who was always in my corner and helped me become a better person.

    What do you remember about Peter?

  • Richard Willis May 31, 2025 at 10:59pm

    Today by Graham Murphy, Organizer

    It is with a heavy heart that I relay that Peter David passed away on May 24th. Many have been so generous in contributing to help with the financial hardships he and his family faced during the time of his illness. We are truly grateful.

    There remain financial burdens, and help is still needed.

    Please spread the word. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.

  • Richard Willis June 7, 2025 at 7:05pm

    Today by Kathleen David, Beneficiary

    Two weeks later and life goes on

    Hard to believe it has been two weeks since Peter took his shuffle off this mortal coil.
    It feels like it was just yesterday and a long time ago.
    In that time, I have started the movement of all the paperwork to settle the estate. Not a ton there. Peter did the best he could. We had to cash out insurance policies and IRAs to get his income down to something that Medicaid would except. That is one relief for me that we can drop the Medicaid battle.
    However now there is the will and the estate to settle. More paperwork to be done. Monday I find a lawyer since I now have the death certificates in hand. This means social security is now on the list of things to be done. I want to get this done in the most efficient method possible.
    Then there are physical things that were Peter’s. Clothing, books, collectables, and other things must be gone through. I will be selling various pieces of the collection to have money to pay for the expenses. How I am going to do it is a little up in the air.
    There will be a memorial with all invited in September. It will be around the 23rd of September which is his 69th birthday.
    I picked up his ashes yesterday and, per his request, I put them before his computer keyboard. It’s a good place for them.
    We had fun on Facebook yesterday speculating how many books he had already done in the great beyond. I said two were already published. He typed 174 words a minute. Yes, that is an insane number of words, but he learned typing first on a manual typewriter then on an electric typewriter. I should have recorded the sound of his typing.
    I found the last anniversary card he gave me. It speaks of us as a couple and how we help each other. We always had each other’s backs.
    Peter enjoyed his time with my friends. They knew who he was but to them he was Kath(y)[leen] husband. He got to be himself around them. He didn’t feel the need to be the PETER DAVID, he could be Peter or Pete. Not that he didn’t tell tales about our lives. My friends could match him, which he liked. I have a very eclectic set of friends who have done lots of interesting things. It was nice to see him relax and just be himself.
    I know he amused the nurses and aids at his rehab facility. They would come to me for verification of those tales. And they would ask me about it. I would confirm he was telling a true life experience. They were impressed. They also told me in a sympathy card how much they liked him as a patient and a person. He tended to make himself beloved.
    I miss my soulmate. I see a bad pun or a good joke and think Peter would like it then I remember he’s not here. I say it out loud so if his ghost is kicking the house. There were the discussions in the morning about the day. The lunches. Taking care of the kids. Dinners. Discussions after the day is done. I miss the time we spent together.
    I also remember enjoying our time apart. We were not connected at the hip. There were conventions he went to by himself and the same for me. I went to lunch at some places around the village. I brought him something back. There were times we went to a film alone because only one of us wanted to see it. We knew we wanted to be together but understood have separate parts of our lives gave us a stronger relationship.

    I miss my husband.
    I am grateful for the time I had with Peter

  • Richard Willis June 26, 2025 at 11:33am


    Today by Kathleen David, Beneficiary
    I am in paperwork heck.
    Wrapping up an estate is complicated business.
    Added Peter not telling me how many insurance policies and an IRA I think he forgot about. I am in the middle of that mess. Not his fault. He just paid the fees and went on with his life.
    I hope everyone made it through or are making it through this heatwave. My AC went out and they didn’t have the part to fix it because they have been fixing a lot of air conditioner. Fortunately the basement has a separate system and I was hiding there.
    How am I? Sad. Missing Peter a lot. Grieving. All normal considering the situation. I am getting puppets done for various conventions. I will be at Shoreleave, GalaxyCon Raleigh, LIWho, and DragonCon. Feel free to talk to me there and tell me you are a GoFundMe supporter.

    I really hope y’all are doing well. We would not have made it. I did use the fund to pay for his funeral expenses and am debating with medical services how much we really owe.



  • Richard Willis June 26, 2025 at 4:23pm

    Editorial Praising Peter David. A good deed is mentioned at the end.

    https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fww...

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