Just a short time ago, the SQL Family lost Gareth Swanepoel. It was fairly sudden and sad to have someone I knew fairly well pass away. He was the first person that I directly knew that was lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.

I'm getting older. I seem to hear about a person I've known passing away almost every year now. I know I've got more life behind me than in front of me, and I cherish the moments I do have and the memories of others.

A few years ago Andy Warren and I were talking about this subject. This was after we lost a common friend, and we wanted to have some way to remember them. We kicked around a few ideas, but other than adding an "Obituaries" category to Database Weekly, I didn't do much.

I decided to change that after I heard about Gareth. While processing my grief, I bought sqlmemorial.org and started to put something together. I've been hearing about Jekyll and I spent a little time messing around with it. I ended up deciding to put this up and start ensuring that we have a way to remember the people that have taught and touched us. I'll also share some articles on how I put this together.

I set this up as a GitHub repo, and I am taking pull requests for people that want to add a memory, a link, a picture, or something else. I'm also hoping that people will let me know as others pass, a sad fact of life that we will continue to experience in the years to come.

I'm hoping this helps me, and many of you, fondly remember the people in our SQL Family.