I am writing this with blurred vision, as my eyes are welling up. We lost a long-time online friend last week, and didn't find out about it until last night. Our friend LivinOnLi (known as Stephen Noll in the real flesh world) passed away on Thurs 12/23/2021 from a heart attack.

We met Livin' (as we all know him) back around 2004 when Air America Radio was starting up, and Air America Place came into existence. He was a constant presence there, and we all became a tight community. When things went south at that site in the summer of 2007, he came with us over to Four Freedoms - first, the message board, and then this blog. He initially requested and chose the DJ as his icon, but changed later to the broke guy. Both were apt, sadly.

The first time we all met in person was for a blog meetup in DC before Raine and I moved here. We had a grand time, and made a video (which - infuriatingly enough - has been taken down from YouTube). He was a bit socially awkward, but through it all he gamely hung out with the rest of us. I wish I had pictures to post from that time, but I can't find them (probably film-based, considering it was mid-2000s).

There were other meetups later - his Book of Faces profile pic was from one of those.



He loved radio, TV, video. He collected comic books and TV Guides until he had to sell them after his employer screwed him by forcing him to take a buyout, and then hiring him back part-time as a "contractor" with no benefits.

We have a BBQ every year, and he was able to attend several of them, sleeping on an air mattress in our basement. There are pictures of him with Coco, the realistic monkey doll, when we dressed it up with B&D gear. The last time he was here was our 2019 party (before COVID forced us to cancel 2020's), and he'd lost quite a bit of weight. It was encouraging to see him making positive changes for himself.

It was at some point after that, though, when he let a foot infection go too long, and had to have part of his foot amputated. He spent the last 2 years in a nursing home, waiting for a prosthetic which would fit properly, and no one in the system seemed to care. Despite our pleas to him to get a nurse advocate (or social worker), he didn't, and spent the last two years of his life there, with his phone as his only contact with the rest of us (and only via internet, since he couldn't pay for phone service).

He had a tendency to wait until things got out of hand before dealing with them, but he certainly didn't deserve any of this. He was a nice guy with a string of bad luck. He had more people who cared about him than he likely realized, and might even have been surprised by the number of tears shed with his passing.

This really sucks. I kept hoping he would get back to walking again, and walk out of that nursing home to start a new life. We had hoped to visit him the next time we were up in the area, but as the old saying goes - the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Time flies and answers to no one, and soon the ones we care about are gone while we keep ourselves busy with our own lives. My new years resolution is to take the time to reach out to those people I never seem to have time for, and make the time.

I am sorry I didn't do better for you Livin' ol' buddy, when you were still living on Long Island. You were not forgotten, and will not be forgotten in the future.

R.I.P.