Hey folks, there’s no easy way to say this, but I wanted to let the Chrono community know that one of our beloved longtime members, @coralinecastell, has recently passed away.
As one of the most active members of this community Coraline made an indelible impact on it and Chrono itself. She was always kind and brought a fun-loving energy to every thread she touched. This community will never be the same without her, but we will try and honor her memory by following her example.
I’d like to invite everyone to use this thread as a public memorial to her. Please feel free to post your favorite memories, threads, and thoughts. I’d also like to use this thread as an opportunity to thank the members of the community who thoughtfully and delicately relayed this information to myself and others. You know who you are, thank you.
Coraline was someone I truly called a friend. Between my distrust of people in general and me being a bit of a challenge to like I do not make friends easily. Her first impression of me, in fact, was that of someone she thought she’d never want to engage with again. I consider myself truly fortunate that she changed her mind at some point.
That’s the kind of person she was, always willing to hear you out and open to try and understand the points of view of others. She was very open, friendly and approachable. She was very easy to like. It was always a delight chatting with her and she was great fun to argue with.
She was also greatly intelligent, driven and capable, she consistently astonished me with her industriousness. Yet she also had energy to spare for the sake of others, at no point did I find her ever reject anyone seeking her counsel or support. I felt simply honoured the times she would turn to me for such things herself.
I am grateful that I got to know her for this far too brief period of her life and the memory of her is something I will treasure for the rest of mine.
Carmela Andrade Coraline Castell Pedicini, you will never be forgotten.
Been waiting for this thread to show up since I was told the news. It’s given me time to process my thoughts and grieve a little but my mind is still hazy with how a person can be there one moment and gone the next. I won’t pretend I was the closest with Coraline, but we did talk and every interaction we had was pleasant. She was a vibrant, lively person who just always seemed to be cheerful and radiate a positive energy.
The most recent message left on my Steam profile was actually from her, so she is immortalized there for me for eternity.
Goodbye Carmela, you will be missed greatly by all the lives you touched.
Coraline (or Carmela, as her real name was) was someone who I wish I had known better. We joined Chrono at about the same time, and shared many great conversations over the years.
Like @KittiBear I’ve been waiting for this to be posted since I learned about it, and have also been grieving and trying to process this information. She was someone who was truly gone too soon, and even just over the internet and our little community here her presence will be truly missed. I will never be able to look at Elmo or other memes the same way now, and the impact her opinions and ideas made in this community is something that will be felt for a long time. There’s so much more that I’m feeling about this and that I could say but I want to keep it relatively short.
There’s many unknowns in life but I do know that Carmela will be greatly missed by myself and all of us here. My thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends during this time, and on us as a community too.
This thread was just brought to my attention by delenn on steam (sorry I don’t know your chrono handle). I had been friends with Coraline for a few months, maybe close to a year at this point. I didn’t have a huge number of conversations with her, but those conversations I did have were wonderful. Talking to her was a joy, she was so thoughtful and kind. She was able to make me feel like we had been close friends for years even from that first conversation. I will miss her.
When I was told the news, I couldn’t believe it. I was not as close to her as others, but we talked a lot, and more often, we had our discussions on board on all sorts of issues or even on games, books and Linux. And no matter what happened or what was said, Carmela was a very patient and caring person, and didn’t let the differences in opinion divide her from that nature.
You touched many lives and always brought a warm, happiness to our community, one which won’t feel the same without you. It was an honor to know you. You will be missed Carmela.
Hello fellow Chronies (are we still using that term?)
It’s been a long time… too long. Sorry for my prolonged absence. Been swamped with work, moving, and various life things. I’m ashamed it has taken such a tragic loss to finally bring me back to this wonderful community.
I received news of Coraline’s passing on Feb. 19th, my birthday, of all days. It turned what should have been a happy occasion into one that was deeply saddening.
Coraline was the sweetest person. Her presence will be missed, forever leaving a hole in the heart of this community. My thoughts and prayers are with all who’ve loved her. I can only try to find some solace in believing that she is now in a better place, surrounded by the most beautiful butterflies.
Love you Coraline. Rest in peace, my friend.
Dan
p.s. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to play PolyBridge again without crying.
Like @Vindace, I joined this community around the same time as @coralinecastell and we have shared many conversations publicly and privately about Chrono, games, life in general. She was very personable and openly trusting, always friendly and easy to talk just about anything. She has joyfully shared with us her joys; she shared her struggles in private.
I have found my moods to be a bit down, in general, as a result of this for the past few days. Work would take me away due to how busy I have been, but when I come home or check into the community here, the first thing I think about is our dear friend who we lost to this tragedy.
I think about that fish-tank helmet, those blue butterflies, and that flaming Elmo every time I look at the Chrono community page in the past few days.
Rest in peace, dear friend. You will always have a place here in our hearts.
I was told about this tragedy a few days ago and I still can’t believe it.
I am glad that I got to know Coraline, even if just a little. We had a few occasions to play together and every time was full of laughter. Coraline was super friendly and cheerful person… I will always remember her laugh when she was winning a game and owning everybody else.
I have written so many lines and deleted them. Nothing seems right; everything is so messed up. I don’t know what to say. She was so young, vibrant, intelligent and oh, so funny.
I will miss the threats or summonings of “Flaming Elmo” and her fish bowl helmet. Cora used to always comment on my old YouTube Videos I posted. And she had an opinion about everything. She had a way to light up a room and now the world is darker without her.
When Mr. Delenn was in the Hospital and almost died from that infection, Cora messaged me and wanted to know if it was OK to ask her Mother to pray for him. That was so sweet. I just wish, now, I knew how to let her Mom know we are both praying for her family in their time of sorrow.
We made reservations in Jan to go to the Butterfly Conservatory TOMORROW. Planned to make a day of it in Niagara Falls because we are getting “cabin fever”… I was going to take a lot of pics and hopefully find a blue butterfly for Cora for when she came back from her trip. Now I really don’t want to go… But I am going to go and think of her and know she isn’t in any pain now. I have to keep remembering that…
I will miss you, Cora. My life and the entire world is better because of you. Take care, my friend. I will see you again in that big Game Room in the sky.
EDITED: Kudos to Chrono for Giving @coralinecastell 3 Special Badges. OMG…She’s a Mod…
I can’t believe that this has happened. It’s really sad to hear this. I never really got to know her and I wish this really didn’t happen. It’s nice to hold a memorial like this for her. I haven’t been chatting on here for quite a while, but this I can’t allow to say nothing about this. I hope that wherever she may be right now, that she is happy. I don’t really have anything to share about her since I never got to know her, but the best I can do is contribute my words to what sounds like a wonderful person. I wish for those who are struggling with this news, as I’m sure that many are, please don’t be afraid to reach out to others. We are all here for you all and only want to help. @coralinecastell, may you rest in peace. We will never forget you and you will always be in our hearts. You will never be gone to us. We will always be with you. As our friend. You will be missed. I Hope you find others to game with, which I’m sure you have. We will be celebrating your life while we wait to join you. We all love you and wish you the best.
I might not have known her all too personally, but I am baffled about how easy it is to take things for granted.
i have been following the conversations here on Chrono for a few years now and she has been a part of this community since as long as I can remember. Even though I didnt really talk to her for real I still feel like I knew her and the fact that she will never return here again makes me uncomfortably sad.
And those are but the feelings of a kind spectator, I can’t imagine what you who knew her and all her loved ones are going through…
Happy to have met you.
Rest in peace.
Like delenn, there are so many things I want to say but no words give her justice.
I won’t talk about how wonderful she is, because all of you already know that.
I will say this though, since I have heard the news, I went back to all the forums she has been on and remembered all interactions she had with us.
I found a post where she talked about the first game we played together and linked a song at the end of the post. I never listened to the song back then, but I did now… And I’m glad I did, because I think this song would be a message she wanted to share with all of us. I have been listening to this nonstop ever since I’ve heard about the news.
I like some here didn’t get to know Coraline as much as I would have liked, but I did have the opportunity to talk to her here in the forums, on private messages and in some board games we played online with some of the other forum members. For me she seemed to bring a brightness to every interaction we had, and as @lonin said that fun loving and positive energy she bought is something I will miss. It’s sad that she is gone so soon, but she has obviously made an impact on people here in the forums as well as others outside of here and that will stay with us all.
I don’t have much to say because I’ve never interacted too much with her but as lonin has said she did have a impact on this community in many different ways and she will most definitely be missed and personally I’ll also miss seeing her post on what’s happening in her life like her plans to travel & posting photos in the The World Through Your Eyes thread, It was nice to at least see a glimpse of her real life before she passed. You’ll be missed Coraline R.I.P.
Sadly I’ve not interacted with her as much as the others too. However, my experience with her has been nothing but positive. She always was kind and was able to stand for what she believes. Maybe I’m being misrepresentative, and for that I’m sorry. If I knew her more I’d have a lot more to say but it’s tragic nonetheless that she passed away for what I assume to be a young age. May you rest in peace.
Coraline has always been part of the Chrono community in my mind. We haven’t interacted too much on here, as I’m mostly a lurker, but I’ve had the opportunity to play board games and chat with her privately. She’s a fun person to be around and I’m thankful for the brief time I’ve known her.
