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2002-03-10 | 5:41 p.m.

COPES, Annabel Lee--Died unexpectedly in her sleep on March 5th, 2002 in Greater Loserville. Born in Greater Loserville on November 3rd, 1964, to Maggie and Lee Copes, as a girl Annabel also lived in Tahoe Gulch and Palmetto Bug, Florida. In 1981 she returned to California to establish residency for college and graduated from Tahoe Gulch High School in 1982. That fall, at 17, she enrolled at UC Berkeley. She had given some thought to majoring in drama, and was cast in a play in a part with one line, but after too many late nights trudging through a heavy rain after rehearsal, she abandoned the theater for journalism. She had already begun writing for the school newspaper, The Daily Fornication, where she would have the opportunity to write, edit, and take photographs, and eventually she rose to the position of managing editor.

Best of all were the lifelong friends she made at the paper, among them Stephen Dicks, Frank Cucombre, and Michaela Woolf. In 1984, without much money, Annabel traveled to Europe with another dear friend, Camille Grenouille. Later she would recall this period as the happiest she had ever known. She returned to California in time to attend the 1984 Democratic National Convention. In 1985, she covered, and eventually participated in, anti-apartheid demonstrations at Berkeley, and around this time she began living with another young staffer, Brian Anklet. She withdrew from classes, moved back to Greater Loserville, and went to work in a photo lab and portrait studio, an experience that led her to write a short story that was published in The Drawn Quarterly in 1993 and was later included, with an introduction by DQ Review editor Mimsy Borogove, in a small press anthology. The story also received an honorable mention from the Pushcart Prizes.

In 1989 she returned to school at Berkeley and studied English literature. She felt fortunate to have had the opportunity to study with and befriend professors such as J--- B---, S--- B---, and L--- M---. By 1991 she had completed all the classes she needed to graduate but one. She had a lifelong difficulty with math and never did complete the school's quantitative reasoning requirement.

Still, she managed to attend a year of graduate school at the University of Iowa, where she was accepted into the creative writing program. She tried taking a statistics class at Iowa but was unable to complete it. This was a difficult time for Annabel, as her eight-year relationship (and secret one-year marriage) with Brian Anklet had come to an end with a collect call from South America. She was supported and encouraged by a small group of friends, particularly Maxine Furlong. Broke and downhearted, unable to complete the math requirement and dissatisfied with the writers workshop, Annabel did not re-enroll at Iowa for a second year and left Iowa, her affairs in disarray, in November 1993.

Heavy with disappointment but also optimistic about the future, at 29 Annabel traveled back to California, and moved in with her mother in Tahoe Gulch. She took a low-wage job at a local casino, in the sports book. Her old friend Stephen Dicks in San Francisco offered her freelance copy editing work if she could get there. She borrowed $2000 from a co-worker, Michele Murphy, and moved back to the Bay Area. At the time of her death, Annabel had repaid only $500 of that debt.

There were other debts, too: a large student loan she defaulted on, debts to Berkeley and Iowa, personal loans, credit cards, and Iowa utilities. But she was nothing if not guilty and had made payments on her student loan for a year, and initiated repayment terms on her Berkeley debt, when she died.

In Iowa, she had become a heavy Internet user at a time when the Internet was not widely used. Among the friends she made online was Duff Kraken, another grad-school dropout living in Arizona. He traveled to Tahoe Gulch to meet her and they agreed to move in together in the Bay Area on a trial basis.

They rented a flat in Oakland in June 1994 and by August 1995 Annabel had given birth to twin girls, Criminy and Felony. Annabel worked from home as a writer, editor, and proofreader while caring for the girls. In 1998 Annabel became pregnant again and they moved from the Oakland flat to a house in Greater Loserville, handpicked by Annabel, which Duff's parents financed. A month after moving in, in September, son Jasper was born.

Annabel continued to work as a freelancer from home. She wrote a handful of articles for Komputer Kraze magazine over the years. She also had a longstanding contract with HowToHaven, writing instructional tips on computing and the Internet, and eventually would develop a series of literary tips for them. In 2001 she began writing a column for a community web site, and her online diary had a small cadre of regular readers. Annabel also volunteered at Grist Elementary School in Lesser Loserville, both in the classroom and in the reading lab.

Annabel was a great one for making plans and at the time of her death had quite a few. She hoped to go back to school to fulfill that dreaded quantitative reasoning requirement, so she could finish her degree and pursue a teaching credential while substitute teaching. She had hoped to travel more and she also wanted very much to write a book.

Annabel's pastimes included reading about literature, politics, natural history and human behavior, updating her diary, and taking photographs of her children. She loved Mexican and Thai food, dancing, and gossip. Friends recall her forceful opinions and quick wit.

Annabel is survived by her beloved children, Criminy, Felony, and Jasper Kraken, devoted partner Duff Kraken, mother Maggie, sister Diane Copes-Fell, brother Marty, niece Bambi Linguini, nephew Damien Blythe, four grand-nephews, and many adored friends. A memorial gathering will be held at the family home on Friday, Annabel's favorite day. Annabel specified that in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Oxfam, but she also said flowers are nice, too.

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