Many of you already know that I lost my riding buddy and pal Syd FishWitch Sheppard on January 21. She died in her sleep at the tender age of 58. Yesterday I said an official goodbye to my pal. Though many of you didn’t know her, I thought I would share her.
If you haven’t already seen this video, it was what won her a one year lease on a Victory Cross Country, she called Skully. She has been riding her Victory Kingpin called Fishuz for the last several years and she had 155K on Syd Fishuz. 🙂 I helped her with this video and we did a lot of laughing during the filming, done by another riding pal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dFokQskVW0
I met Papa-Ken, one of my oldest rider pals from pashnit. yesterday in Roseville to pay a last tribute to our riding pal, Sydney. The service though not well attended was heartfelt by the words shared between friends and PK did her proud with some beautiful thoughts and well spoken poem. I didn’t realized Ken and Syd had never met, but it seems Syd, with all her friends, found her ties mostly online never meeting many of her cyber riding buddies in person.
For those of us that did know her, we were treated to a person, full of life, brimming with a sharp wit and keen sense of humor. Syd had no delusions about who she was, and she totally accepted herself and her strengths and weakness. She was a fully autonomous female who found joy in her own convictions and surrounded herself with her online pals whether cruising forums or playing her online word games. And when she did meet others, she was the sort of person never to be forgotten. One loved Syd immediately with her endearing smile and larger than life persona. I know that I will miss her and our lively late night telephone conversations.
This is a shot taken of Syd on one of our rides. I rarely rode with Syd because she usually had an entourage of cruiser riders in accompaniment and I had my staunch “no group rides” belief and a more brisk pace, but I cherished the rides where it was just me and Syd.
I rode to Roseville, because it seem appropriate and met with her cousins before the ceremony so I could pick up Syd, though her ashes were divided three ways, the best part will be hanging with me until I am able to get out and place her on some of her favorite roads.
Here are her cousins
L To R
Patrick from Bakersfield who rides a HD.
Linda, wife of Darryl who wants a CanAm
Darryl, who took the time out of his busy life to take care of all of Sydney’s loose ends, and believe me there were several. He last rode a BMW RT and is considering the purchase of one.
Darryl sent me this fun photo taken about 5 years ago. Prior to that he hadn’t seen Syd in 30 years!
Right now, Syd’s beautiful and beloved KP is in storage. Somehow that seems a crime.
I came across this photo that Syd sent to me in 2007. I don’t even remember what this was about exactly, but I can rather imagine knowing her wicked sense of humor.
There was about a 10 minute tribute to Syd which was just lovely. It included the two big tribute rides honoring her, her winning American Road Trip video and some beautiful stills of Syd. It was quite moving.
Gorgeous flowers from Victory friends with loving sentiment.
Papa-Ken and me.
I had to chuckle at where PK parked here…note the sign, and then I realized I too could probably park there! :bigwow
I felt some closure finally, to this seemingly endless situation surrounding her death. Syd…you left us with a mystery, just like a classic film star. I love you, girl. 😉
Now let’s ride together one final time.
Syd was a frequent contributor to my blog and one such post can be found here offering advice to new riders…it’s priceless!