Not easy words for me to write. He gave it the good fight but in the end, as we all eventually will, he lost the battle.
I had a chance to meet him several years ago at a book signing. He was a friendly fellow and seemed larger than life, at the time. I’ve been a fan since the day I picked up “The Eye of the World”. Once upon a time, in the mid 90’s, I had a fan site that kept track of as many of the plot twists and turns, and characters, as I could identify. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for epic fantasy and he was among the masters of the field.
The official site is being slammed, but here is what it says.
It is with great sadness that I tell you that the Dragon is gone. RJ left us today at 2:45 PM. He fought a valiant fight against this most horrid disease. In the end, he left peacefully and in no pain. In the years he had fought this, he taught me much about living and about facing death. He never waivered in his faith, nor questioned our God’s timing. I could not possibly be more proud of anyone. I am eternally grateful for the time that I had with him on this earth and look forward to our reunion, though as I told him this afternoon, not yet. I love you bubba.
Our beloved Harriet was at his side through the entire fight and to the end. The last words from his mouth were to tell her that he loved her.
Thank each and everyone of you for your prayers and support through this ordeal. He knew you were there. Harriet reminded him today that she was very proud of the many lives he had touched through his work. We’ve all felt the love that you’ve been sending my brother/cousin. Please keep it coming as our Harriet could use the support.
Jason will be posting funeral arrangements.
My sincerest thanks.
Peace and Light be with each of you,
Wilson
Brother/Cousin
4th of 3
Peace be with you Robert and with your family, thank you for touching the lives of so many around our world – Lorna from Suffolk in England
Hey all, while this isn’t meant to insinuate that Jordan is alive, there has still been absolutely no ‘official’ word on his death from the standard news sites. All of the stories available so far are directly from the link to the blog, which, in all fairness, could have been hacked. As of 10:30 AM on 9/17, CNN, CBS, ABC, The New York Times and the Associated Press have all shown no mention of Jordan’s death. Again, I have no real reason to think that this is a hoax, I just wanted to mention that the news seems very slow to hit the ‘legit’ news circuit, and for all of us to remember that the web isn’t foolproof. If Jordan is, in fact, dead, my condolences to his family, friends and fans. He will certainly be missed.
at 10:35 AM EST, the Associated Press released a story on Jordan’s death, which was picked up by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer among other papers. It seems like the news is now official. N mention in the article about the final disposition of the Wheel of Time series, I suppose there will be news on the blog site eventually, though I’m sure that is of secondary importance to his family and friends at this point.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/09/17/obit.jordan.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Sad day indeed. I’ve been a fan of his work for a heck of a long time, and have many a computer named after his Forsaken. I knew he was fighting a long uphill battle, though I haven’t checked in on his status for a while. This was shocking to see, to say the least. On a selfish note, I hope someone has plans to carry on his epic series, although I have my suspicions on how it ends.
So very sad. He will be missed by many.
I read this on wotmania.com:
Jordan has been dictating outlines and plot lines and everything else related to the final book. He used the phrase “army of writers” to talk about the people that were converting those tapes into written form.
It would appear that the final book will still be published, I’m sure details regarding that will work themselves out.