Dear Messrs Nimoy & Pratchett

I just wanted to take a moment to mention Terry Pratchett and Leonard Nimoy. 

I've seen a lot of lovely tribute artwork on many sites.  I'd like to take a moment to share a little sketch of my own that I drew last week when I heard about Terry Pratchett.  Terry Pratchett sits in his characteristic black hat, watching the sunrise (or sunset) with two of his characters, Death and Rat Death (Death got lonely, so he let Rat Death coexist with him...it's a long story.  A book, in fact.).  They are joined by Spock, the first face of Lenoard Nimoy that I knew and cherished.

I've followed both of these gentlemen since high school.  Leonard Nimoy's work was mostly in visual media, ranging from "Star Trek" to movies to photography (see  his "Secret Selves" or his "Full Body" photographic series), but he also wrote memoirs and poetry that I read.  Terry Pratchett was a prolific writer whose work I grew to love in college, and I built his words in my head long before I saw some of them adapted into other forms of media.

Nimoy and Pratchett's work reminded me that important topics could be addressed through humor and personal creativity, and through the twisting of familiar mythology and cultural knowledge.  The characters and worlds they created became valued places that I could visit over and over again.

In this age of social media, I suppose it is not surprising that I first heard the news about each of them having died through social media.  Or that their respective social media accounts would be used to announce the news to their followers and fans.  Both of these gentlemen were dealing with prolonged medical issues, but they continued to interact as long as they were able.  I'd like to share the final tweets from their Twitter accounts, because I found both touching while I was processing the news.  Many fans have posted their thoughts and reactions in response to the announcements.

Leonard Nimoy shared some of his poetry, followed by a reflection (Tweets read from oldest on the bottom to the most recent on top):

Terry Pratchett's final posts were not his own.  I believe it was his daughter who shared the news through the voices of "Death" and the narrator of Discworld:

#LiveLongAndProsper