A Fond Adieu.

A web comic is almost the very definition of self-indulgence. So you'll understand why I'm going off the snarky, progressive tracks for a moment to eulogize my sister, Karen Dawn Stanfill-Christopher, who passed away Wednesday morning after a two-year battle with cancer.

Karen was born the third of eight children and provided the role of effervescent star-child. We affectionately called her Dawny. (For those not familiar with a rural Texas accent, that's pronounced "Dough-Knee") As a young woman she played the clarinet in the marching band and could twirl a baton with her toes. She is possibly the primary reason I'm sitting here writing this now as she, among all others, always found my inept buffoonery to be scandalously amusing.

Most of her life was spent toiling in middle-management for the U.S. Post Office. Though it was at times a fractious relationship it offered a good pension and fabulous health benefits. I write this in all obvious irony.

She leaves in her wake four husbands, one thoroughly-loved daughter, two thoroughly-spoiled grandchildren, five knucklehead brothers, one resilient sister, and one tough mother.

The following video snippet of Karen was recorded at Xmastime of 1993. That day, using a borrowed VHS camera, I asked each family member a dozen questions, editing the results into a video keepsake. One of the questions was "What's the best advice you can give someone?" Karen's response was the pure, unbridled essence of Dawnyness: