Goodnight, Sky-Byte

Found out today that one of my good friends, Peter Spellos, has passed away. I was lucky enough to meet Pete at Auto Assembly (a Transformers convention here in Birmingham) back in 2014. I hadn't known who he was when I attended the con, but I was there as press reporting for Geek Syndicate and so I made sure to attend all panels and Q&A sessions that I possibly could. Peter's panel was so hilarious, interesting, and frank that I was moved to approach his table afterward to tell him such, which is very unusual for me as I find meeting new people completely terrifying and avoid it wherever I can. He was immediately absolutely lovely, and signed my press pass as it featured a picture of the Transformers character he voiced, Sky-Byte, and a friendship was instantly made.

What a phenomenal guy. I often joked about him being my Internet Dad, but honestly he was so supportive of me that it became less and less of a joke as time went on. He guested on my podcast a couple times, and was a huge supporter of the live charity shows I did, because he was super generous. Peter was such a brilliant man; wickedly funny, incredibly kind, passionately nerdy, but the thing that always struck me about him was how non-judgmental he was. He amassed a huge family across the world in all shapes and sizes because he had an absolutely massive heart. I'm gonna miss him so much, but I am so grateful for the time I did know him. I'm so lucky to have been counted amongst his friends. 

Your Turtle Girl will think of you whenever she eats a pie (I'm not one to believe in fate but it seems truly baffling and vaguely wonderful that I ended up having pie and mash for dinner last night after a few failed attempts at eating at other places...) or has a tot of whiskey. Love you, padre xx