Eirik was loved by many. But not everyone could make it to the in person celebrations. In the hopes to bring comfort to those who weren’t able to attend I’ve compiled recordings and other small things to give closure, love, and a little piece of Eirik to everyone.
At Eirik’s New Mexico celebration the event started with a viewing of Godzilla Minus One. I wasn’t quite sure why I was so compelled to do this at the time, but later it was really wonderful to talk to people about the movie, and to create a sense of community. Also is there a more perfect venue to watch it at then The National Nuclear Museum? Doubtful. Eirik really loved this movie, and as he did with movies he loved immediately watched it several days in a row when it first came out on Netflix.
Eirik’s New Mexico Celebration of Life Service
The service opened with this:
https://starwarsintrogenerator.com/scroller?u=29ak3sff
Here is a recording of the service:
Afterword: Remembering Eirik Gumeny Short Story Collection
After selling out of Storybook Romance in New Mexico, we created a short story collection for the NJ Celebration. A PDF of this collection can be found here:
Acknowledgements from Joel McHale (for reals)
If you came to the NM celebration, you were able to read Eirik’s Exponential Apocalypse Omnibus Acknowledgements poster sized. It was a beautiful way to show all the things he loved and cared about. When Eirik turned 40, in 2020, there was no big party obviously for COVID reasons. If anything, I think he loved that he had an excuse to be introverted on that day. I asked all his friends and family to send video messages to celebrate. He really loved it and even cried a bit about it. I was going to get a Cameo for him too, but I thought he might think it was too cheesy and didn’t. When I asked him about it later, he said he would have actually liked it. I was going to do it for another birthday, but never got around to it. So instead, I got him this.
https://www.cameo.com/recipient/671db6a2ebaa6ff186aafe5f
The Music
This is the playlist I curated with the help of Mike Sweeney and Violet Schwegler for Eirik’s honor walk and for the last songs he heard.
Eirik passed during Carry on My Wayward Son because he’s poetic as hell, and that’s the last song he heard before his transplant, so he needed it for the next transition.
This is the playlist we used at the celebration: