Octavia Butler Died

Oh my word I was hoping this was not true:
http://darkush.blogspot.com/2006/02/octavia-butler-died-saturday.html

Here's the story from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/books/260959_butlerobit26ww.html

Rest in peace, Sistren. RIP

She was at the Black to the Future Science Fiction Festival in Seattle in 2004 and I had a chance to go and didn't. A friend of mine went and got to meet her and talk with her.

I will never get to meet this woman. I should have went. She is one of my favorite writers EVER and a big influence on my own sci-fi writing. Oh my god, I am all torn up.