It is with the most profound sadness that I bring you news of one our most prized posters and most valuable people here. Nathanial Meade died suddenly on the ninth day of this month.

I only received notification of this earlier today and have spent the time in between trying to ascertain confirmation of this as the internet can be a cruel place at times. It was no hoax.

Nathanial was a feisty, opinionated and outspoken person here at AU.com and he will be so sorely missed. Larger than life I feel honoured to have been called a 'friend' of his.

Many of you will have known him better than I and this news will shock you deeply. His user name of course was a_skeptic.

My personal condolonces to his family and friends. The condolonces of everyone here at AU.com will be sent to his family if I can find a means of doing so.

Nathanial - you were a lovely guy and you will be missed by all. Rest in Peace my friend.

Ben

RIP Nate (a_skeptic)

I miss you already brother. I truly do.

Nate was this member:

http://alien-ufos.com/forum/member.php?u=3312

A very, very good guy.

You'll always be in my heart, Nate.

Mauirn just told me about Nath's passing over. I am literally upset to the core and do not really know what to say, as you will know the feeling, my stomach is feeling like crap. Me and Nath on here and over at flipside had some very heated discussions, but we always made up and became friends through private message (its going to be hard to look at them because I think I still have them). As much as our opinions differed he was/is obviously an intelligent and kind moral guy. I am so glad let me tell you that me and Nath made our peace with each other. Who would have thought it at such a young age? I agree with Tutu he hasn’t really gone anywhere, just changed circumstances. I can just imagine now him kicking back where ever we go with a beer or some shots of Kentucky whisky living it up.

I never thought I would be this upset about someone I never met one to one, but guess its because it never happened before.

My prayers are with his friends and family, not that he needs my prayers because as I just said just now he is fine kicking it with the best, and is not in need of my prayers, but my thoughts are with him and will be for some time to come.

I will post more up about Nath soon because I want to pay my respects somehow, at the moment I am a little taken back and am not sure what to say.

Faeden..you and I have almost the same feelings regarding Nate -you said it so well. I also still have pm's of our apologizing to each other after heated debates. He never thought it below him to say he was sorry -or accept my apology to him.

A very admirable trait...

I was writing a post about him on another forum about how I was missed him, hit send..and within a minute..saw that he had passed from Ben. My heart is still in my throat.

I learned a lot from Nate -and he opened my eyes on many an issue.
We were staff together at another board..and knew personal things about each other. He loved his parents so much -had respect for the people around him -felt bad that he once had to take a rabid dog down...to the point of tears.

He loved sports and adored science fiction.
He was an amazing history buff..and his knowledge was vast.

He will always be missed...always.
Rest in peace, Skeppers..

Yep Dani your right. I knew him somewhat like you know, but I have been looking him up over the last few hours as I wanted to know more about the man as I now wish I got to know him more, he seems like a great guy. I see things like his myspace page and see he only signed in not to long ago and it makes my heart feel like its being torn in two when I see that. What a great guy, and he will always remain so always.

Though having been permanently banned from here, I have very blatantly returned here only momentarily (and I implore the moderators here to permanently ban me for the final time immediately after this post) to give my respect to a fellow soul. Such was Nathanial. Anyway, this post is not about myself, it is dedicated entirely to Nathanial. I have been driven here, not so much to mourn his death, but to celebrate his life.
I will not make any flowery bullshit statements about how much of a friendship I had forged with Nathanial, because such statements would not be in conformity with truth. I barely knew this man. The conversations I had with him are few and far between in comparison to some of the other members here. Being more of a prominent lurker on forums than a member, I became aware of his departure while its announcement was still fresh. It left me dumbfounded then and it still leaves me dumbfounded now. I have never experienced the death of a person on any forum I have ever frequented (and I’ve frequented enough forums throughout the years to be completely unaware of the exact number). This is quite a surreal experience for me and I am certain that the feeling is mutual for many others here. In any case, the scarce interactions that we had with each other endowed me with a quiet admiration for the incredible decency of this man, this soul. Certainly, open-mindedness and passion are excellent traits to cultivate… but only when and if they are tempered with compassion and humility. I realise this now and hence I have been drawn here once more, almost as if against my own will, to feebly try to express my gratitude to you, Nathanial. The extent of my appreciation for your tolerant bearing of my stubbornness and idiocy is ineffable. My recent discovery that you have apologised to others after heated debates with them stunned me. It shouldn’t have. I had noticed your humble nature since the moment I first met you. Today, I read many of your posts that you gifted this forum with (and in particular, the ones in which you directly responded to me). Your sense of humour is sincere, your opinions consistent, your scepticism penetrating, your inquisitiveness refreshing and your heart golden. I was considering restricting this verbose spiel about you to the confines of my mind, but as I went to a store today to rent some videos, my cousin (who genuinely has no awareness of you or this forum in general) decided to borrow the movie known as ‘The Blues Brothers’. I was instantly reminded of your avatar and I knew that this was no coincidence, startling though it was. No, this universe itself had chosen to remind me of you. It has been said that one’s life has not been lived in vain if they have touched even a single person. If this is indeed the case, know yourself to be SUPREMELY wealthy, for you have touched not only myself but numerous others as well. I acknowledge no screen-names here. I only acknowledge that which is behind all these screen-names. We are all human beings behind these screen-names and though we may like to think otherwise, our lives are fragile and delicate. We often take the presence of a dear friend for granted and do not tell them how much they mean to us until we finally realise that Eternal Time has cruelly taken them away from us because we did not do then what we are doing now. The irony of this would even be amusing to me if it weren’t so poignant. Anyway, enough nonsense from me. We’ll meet again sometime, my friend……… when the curtains of Maya are no longer closed between us.

This isn't the time or the place for bannings - I know I respect and value the words you wrote above Truth Seeker...I'm sure Nathanial would too.

Thank you.

Ben

http://www.partingwishes.com/memorials/nathanialmeade

Please pay your respects on the above link.

Wow, sorry I didn't surf this thread earlier. I didn't know anyone knew him on a personal level to know of his passing. I can't remember if it was a_skeptic but I recall someone mentioning to me they had cancer. I have to research it. I believe I mentioned the multi colored black mole on my back and how the Doctor was sure it was Melanoma. I believe it was a_skeptic who told me to hang in there and that he too had a form of cancer. The one thing I will remember about him the most was he believed in UFOs but downplayed most events as factual cases. This is like the third person I've known online who passed away. I knew someone from Yahoo chat who was in a Car accident and another Kid who died from a disease. Anyways, this is a time for reflection. I'm sorry for his family and I'm glad he gets to know the truth about our world because in my own beliefs, I feel when we die, All knowledge is brought before us. And I'm fairly certain He knows now that we were never alone.










edited: It was Cricket who had was having health problems. Anyways, Take care a_skeptic!

Though, I didn't know him personally, I feel deeply saddened by this news.

I often didn't agree with many of his viewpoints in certain subjects, but respected his views just the same because he was consistently passionate about his beliefs and brought balance and perspective to many discussions.

My condolences to those who knew him best! May he rest in peace.

May his passing remind us to let those whom we love know how much we love them and cherish them every day for we never know when they will leave us or we leave them, and not to hold petty grudges.

Such sad news to hear. My condolences to his family, and his friends. I did not interact with a skeptic allot, but I sure enjoyed reading some of his posts, and his responses to other posts. He was all over this forum on any given day.

He was a very bright young man who will be dearly missed.

May he rest in peace.

When he disagreed with you, you knew it was just his opinion vs yours and that you both respected one another for it. Unlike a few other members I have come across on here. Well, at least one who has since been banned for being hostile and rude. So far we all seem to get along on this forum which is rare for me. Almost all forums I go on.. there is at least one Jerk.

That's the thing about Nate -we fought all the time -big huge arguments about all kinds of things...but in the end, we always made up -didn't take things personally, and had many a laugh or two.

He was honest all the time -but he never tired to put you down, personally...because your beliefs didn't quite match his.

He is missed...will always be missed.

A beautiful post, and it sums up alot of what I feel about Nathanial. I still can't quite believe such a gem of a person is gone. This forum is where I first met him, so I wanted to give my respects to him here too. RIP Nate - I miss you.

RIP a-skeptic...I miss you already

Iam deeply saddend by the news of A skeptic he was a really nice guy and was really nice to me on the forum when i first joined .
He will be sadly missed by all who knew him.
love angie .

RIP Nathaniel.

i never really talked with skeptic but i could tell he was a very intelligent man just from reading his posts. may he find all the answers he was looking for where ever he is

Celebrate his life , in future years we will all meet again and renew the friendships we shared on this plane. May peace be brought to his family and friends .