On Friday, October 28th, 2016, my beautiful sister Melanie Otto passed away from the complications of an aneurysm.

Melanie was a fighter.  She had survived many years of seizures due to an AVM (a cluster of blood vessels in her brain she had been born with) and had just passed her 5-year mark of being cancer-free (having been diagnosed with colon cancer in 2011).

Most of all, though, Melanie was a storyteller.  She was an incredibly gifted author who penned several novels, short stories and anime fan fiction and told stories through her gorgeous photography.  Melanie also loved teaching and had a lifelong passion for helping others learn.  In her lifetime, she had taught thousands of students how to master their cameras and take beautiful pictures.

Melanie's warm smile, sense of humor and her distinctive laugh is what we will all remember.  

When Melanie's aneurysm struck on October 19th, she was having a good day chatting with a neighbor, working on some projects, bringing in some apples that had fallen from the tree.  Her last words to me were happy ones, texting me the fun story of how she had saved those apples from the neighborhood crows...

And then she was taken from us.  The bleed into her brain was catastrophic.  All that life and love, humor and talent and wisdom was gone.  She was taken way too soon.

Melanie's partner of 20-years, Judy, and I thank you for any contribution you can make in Melanie's name toward her final expenses.  It would mean the world to us.

And...thank you so much for loving my sister, Melanie Otto.