Mighty Mel

Only 4 days left to preorder the new Minders album that features a song about Nat! Spread the word to anyone who is friends with Natalie.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/loudkittycreative/the-minders-into-the-river-album-release 

Hi friends of Natalie,

I wanted to let you know that one of Natalie's favorite bands, The Minders, have a Kickstarter for their new album and they are close to reaching their goal. The new album features a song about Natalie. Having heard the song live, I can tell you it's really amazing and Natalie would be floored. If you would like to contribute and pre-order the album and help ensure it gets released, you can do so here:

Friends of Natalie,

Her sister informed me the other day that Natalie's book is out. Here's some information:

Both parents have worked on editing, fact-finding, and basically compiling the chapters into a full-fledged book. We would love it if you checked it out and also spread the word. Here's some info about it:

...

The Kindle edition of "When Your Song Breaks the Silence" is now available in the Kindle Store at amazon.com and via the Kindle app. The Smashwords edition (www.smashwords.com) is being distributed to Barnes & Noble (their Nook Store), Apple, Sony, and other e-book catalogs.

The book's Facebook Fan page: www.facebook.com/whenyoursong

The book's web site: https://sites.google...eaksthesilence/

Also, here's an article about Natalie and her novel that came out yesterday, July 14th: http://annarborchron...n-book-fare-18/

Hi all,

Natalie's mom asked me to forward this on to her friends. It looks like some of Nat's writing has been published! What a fantastic tribute. I know Natalie would be very excited about this. Please feel free to forward this on to her friends that may not read this board too often.

Here's a portion of the email from Natalie's mom:

"I’m writing with some news. Ever since Natalie died, I have been working

on getting her writing published: several stories, a novella, and her

fictional biography of Schubert. I’m currently sending out some of the

shorter work to a number of literary journals. Last year, a chapter from

her Schubert novel was accepted for publication in a journal called Battered

Suitcase. It’s now appearing in the Winter 2010 issue. Her

story is called “An die Freude” and people can read it on the magazine

website: http://www.vagabondagepress.com/ Thanks very much.

There will also be a piece on Natalie and her writing on the Vagabondage

Press Blog, http://vagabondagepress.blogspot.com/ along with a photo of

Natalie. I don’t know when that will be appearing – I hope soon.

It’s so sad that Natalie’s first publication must be posthumous, but all of

us who loved her can feel that it serves as a sort of memorial."

excited for wilco tonight. although it's my first wilco show since natalie died...bittersweet.

just wanted to say that i'm really really enjoying the new wilco album. thinking of natalie and all her friends here.

xo

mel

cool, thanks!

planned parenthood has received close to $1 million dollars in donations thanks to a viral email that spread in regards to donating money "in sarah palin's honor" and sending the thank you card to john mccain's office. it makes me want to donate again in addition to honoring natalie

it's weird not having nat here for her birthday. i'm sure we would have gone to the montage and did oyster shooters (yuck) like last year. :\

i would love to see natalie debate sarah palin.

Hey Mel. Every year, Jeff Tweedy auctions off several in-your-own-home shows for charity. This one took place in Chicago in April. A bunch of us there knew and loved Natalie, but Judy (screen name: Dreamin') made the request.

 

I've been meaning to check in with you all over at your board. Hope everyone's doing OK.

 

Oh, and the banner is by Mrs. Peel, our resident graphics genius.

that is very cool, thanks! i just tried sharing the .wav file song link with natalie's sister, but for some reason the link isn't working on her computer. does anyone here know how to convert it to an mp3?

http://www.superschein.com/sneakpeak/AlwaysinLoveNJ.wav

 

For Natalie.

oh man, that is way cool! where was this at? nat would be so honored.

love the natopia banner.

listening to summerteeth today and thinking of nat. she always told me that this album saved her life.

if she were here today, we would both be feeling giddy about the upcoming spoon show next week. she was going to be my spoon buddy again.

One of natalie's favorite bands, The Minders decided to call it quits last week. It made me think of her.

yeah, i can't help but think how sad natalie would be about this news. martyn was at her memorial and he informed us that they were breaking up. sad indeed.

Hi guys,

Natalie's sister has set up a scholarship fund in honor of Natalie at Birthingway College of Midwifery in Portland, the school Natalie attended.

If you are interested in making a donation, checks can be made out to Birthingway College of Midwifery. You can send in checks individually, just be sure to include a note with your check (on the memo line of the check or a sticky note) that states something like, "for scholarship in honor of Natalie Jacobs."

The address is:

Rhonda Ray, Student Affairs Coordinator

Birthingway College of Midwifery

12113 SE Foster Road

Portland, OR 97266

Please pass this along to anyone who may be interested in making a donation in her honor.

We also appreciate all of the donations that have been made in her honor to Planned Parenthood - her sister will be making a donation to them as well.

Thank you for your help!

interesting, thanks for your input. from everything i've read, it sounds like viral myocarditis mimics the symptoms of so many other illnesses (like a common viral infection), which is why it makes it so difficult to diagnose. i've read so many sad stories on the internet about young people passing away suddenly from viral myocarditis, some even died 30 minutes after arriving at the hospital. still, i wonder if she was kept a few more hours, if they would have detected a new symptom. although i do not know the exact time of her death, she did pass away the same day she was released.

What a sad, sad story. She certainly seems to have touched many people here and abroad. I am an emergency physician and this is truly a nightmare case. viral myocarditis is a difficult diagnosis to make especially in the er. patients often present with non specific symptoms of fever and malaise. usually they will have some component of chest pain or shortness of breath, this leads to ordering an ekg, and sometimes some abnormal findings on said ekg. often the abmormal ekg will lead to ordering a series of cardiac markers which are often elevated and that would prompt admission to the hospital. i don't claim to know any of the merits of her case nor her presentation to the hospital. the family is certainly within their rights and i would encourage them to pursue whether or not she received appropriate care. even if they don't desire monetary compensation, her family needs to address the medical community where she is from and make them aware of the failed system and her missed diagnosis. tragedies like this need to be discussed and debated, it's the only way to change the system. i take care of about 6,000 patients a year and reading about the loss of such a wonderful person in the prime of her life is very sobering and a reminder that each of my patients belong to families and communities who love them very much.

I agree with your post and I can assure you that her family is definitely looking into whether or not she received appropriate care, and they are in the process of obtaining more information about her medical and autopsy records. They are also having other doctors look at this information for second opinions. Obviously it was a missed diagnosis (the hospital sent her home), which is why they are looking into this further. It's just so unfortunate that this was so hard to diagnose. I've also heard (correct me if I am wrong) that there is a not a treatment for chronic viral myocarditis. Thanks for your input - it's nice to hear another professional opinion.

No problem . It's so nice to see how many people Natalie touched in her life.

Thanks for the news on this. I had been wondering about this in recent days, since there seems no logical reason (there are plenty of illogical ones of course) for someone so young to have passed away after receiving medical attention. I know this is tacky, but someone needs to sue. If she had that serious an illness and was not admitted for long term care, that is really dreadful.

 

LouieB

The family is obtaining second opinions on the medical records, however, it does appear that viral myocarditis is hard to detect. Apparently you can stabalize it if it's caught early on, but there is no treatment for chronic viral myocarditis. I've also read that sudden death is a common symptom.

So even though we wish she could have stayed in the hospital longer (and I would feel better if she had), I'm not sure if it would have helped or not, sadly.

Wow, I am really touched by the generousity of this community. Natalie would be very honored. I am going to pass this link on to Natalie's family .

I also wanted to mention that Natalie's sister will be setting up a scholarship fund at the Birthingway College that Natalie attended in Portland for her friends and colleagues to donate to in her honor. The details are still being worked out, but I can post them here in the future if people are interested.

after a month of wondering how our friend passed away, her parents finally received the death certificate and medical records this week.

natalie's official cause of death was viral myocarditis, a virus triggered by the flu that she had. it basically attacks the lining of the heart. if you google the term, there is more information on the internet about viral myocarditis.

it is now clear and apparent that the hospital did not give natalie the proper care while she was there. many of us suspected this, but to have it confirmed is very painful and sad . her family will be looking into this further for more answers. sorry to be the bearer of sad news.

hello all,

natalie's family has asked that i share this information with her friends.

in lieu of flowers, her parents would prefer that her friends donate to whichever charity they like that is medical/health/birth related that would honor natalie's life. they plan to make their own donation to planned parenthood. they are grateful to anyone who wants to do this.

if you would like to leave her family a message, you can do so at the guest book that is available online where her obituary is posted:

http://obits.mlive.com/AnnArbor/DeathNotic...sonID=101292222

for those who are still wondering about cause of death, we are still waiting to hear from the medical examiner. hopefully we'll know soon.

i continue to cling to the hope that Nat went peacefully and gently, in her sleep and that she wasn't afraid or in pain or suffering.

 

 

please let that be what happened.

Although we still do not know the exact cause of death (hopefully we'll know soon), I can assure you that it appeared that she had been sleeping peacefully and gently.

Sonic Youth at last!, in beautiful Portland, OR

 

Thanks to The B Family, or Say, can we do this again?

 

Picture TIme!, Jeff and Sue

 

Beck is Jewish?!

 

Emma Blowgun's Last Stand

 

 

If someone could find the Jim O'Rourke John Rutsey interview that would be cool - I can't find it.

thanks so much for posting all of those links. i can hear natalie's sweet voice as i read these. i was also trying to remember the url for her music blog, so i was so happy when you posted the link to emmablowgun. many thanks.

awww the opossum and the cat.....I am sure some of her Portland friends are taking care of them.

her animals are being loved and cared for by friends.

A thought just occured to me - Nat was apparantly on several boards, delivered babies, traveled extensively to see friends and bands, befriended numerous people over the internet that she'd never met in person, not to mention knitting and creating aluminum foil sculptures to give away. In short, she did more in her brief time on this planet than most do in 100 years. It's OK to be sad for ourselves because we miss her, but I'm sure she would have few regrets. Her life was full and fulfilling.

 

Can you deny, there's nothing greater

Nothing more than the traveling hands of time?

Sainte Genevieve can hold back the water

But saints don't bother with a tear stained eye

thank you, that is so nice to remember. very comforting.