Ah-hah! Echo = Alison!

I had one of those palm-to-forehead moments yesterday. It’s because we’re coming up on the saddest day of the Catholic calendar tomorrow. Well, the saddest day of this Catholic’s calendar. Tomorrow is the sixth anniversary of my wife’s suicide.

When I posted my eulogy for Alison on Whedonesque three years ago, I was hoping her story would inspire Joss Whedon. Not that he needs inspiration, I just wanted him to get a glimpse of her heroism, because I know he enjoys seeing the hero in a woman. And if he happened to immortalize her memory in art . . . complaining I would not be. (I am not posting a link because it is most depressing. Seriously. It’s a three-hanky thread. That’s a flippant way to put it, but I would not want to come across that thread for the first time today if I had class or work tomorrow.)

This was the theme of the eulogy: “I do not have time today to mention all the beautiful things about Alison. I will limit myself to one. Alison loved to ease other people’s pain.”

I do not know how many times I’ve written that the central character trait of Echo is that she wants to ease other people’s suffering. Until yesterday it did not occur to me that Joss had created a character whose essence is that one beautiful thing.

It shined through in “Belonging.” The Echo moment is when she looks over at Sierra and realizes that she is suffering, and then she does something about it.

Beautiful. Thank you, Joss! I don’t know whether you ever read that thread or not, so I can’t take credit, but thank you for seeing something beautiful in a woman and showing the rest of the world.