Moby sent this email out to friends. He said it was okay to post here:
Dear F-O-D-H (Friends of Dene Hallam)
I'm sitting here on this Sunday morning just stunned.
Dene Hallam has passed away!! "WHAT!?!"
Dene won't be sitting behind that pile of crap that was his desk ever again.
I can't believe I'm actually going to miss the mess that was wherever Dene was. At his office at the Moby Network facility, and in the apartment in the basement of our home, where he lived for over a year and a half, the pile was at least knee deep, and was all things that, "Pal, I might need that one day."
Honestly, I don't even know why I chose to write this and send it to those in my address book that I know Dene loved, that loved him back. Such a small percentage of those to which that would apply.
So, pardon my rambling if you'd be so kind, and just let me lean on you for a few paragraphs.
Dene was like my twin brother. We'd said that to each other so many times over these past few years. We'd laugh so loud the next offices could hear us, and cuss each other to the point they'd probably want us to hold it down, just like families do. We were Dene's family, and he was a large part of ours.
Holidays would find Dene around our family table. (With Hayleigh, if it happened to fall on "his days") I've been sitting here reading Facebook entries, and I'm at a good bit of a loss as to how to proceed.
I grieve over the tortured soul that Dene had become, and over the fact that his twins weren't part of his life these past few years, yet he tried over and over again to support them in any way he could think of knowing he'd not feel any of that love returned in any way.
I'm so sad thinking that those girls have lost their dad, without ever getting to tell him thank you for being such a good and giving man.
A pain in the neck? Sure he was. We can all be in our own ways, especially me. But I have to ask myself could I ever show such love, unwavering commitment, & dedication, while feeling none of it returned?
God, he was a good man.
Those facebook posts are from scores of good people that Dene had made better, or at the very least attempted to. They're mainly from people that were exposed to Dene when he was at the top of his game, and benefited from being there.
They, thank God, weren't there to see, feel, and hear the trauma of a loving man who felt he'd lost everything.
For the final chapter of his life, Dene programmed our Moby network, and did it with the same amount of passion he'd had for the biggest station he'd ever taken ot the top regardless of the odds against him.
Many times I'd come to work at 0'dark thirty, and there he would sit, having been there all night, agonizing over the logs, and making sure in his own mind that it all flowed right.
There's a tremendous void at Moby Enterprises now that we won't fully realize for a while.
We'll deal with the hole left by this loss in the weeks to come, but for now, I just think of his desk piled to the ceiling with crap he'd never need, and some very important things among the pile that he could find if pressed.
For now, I'm just reading the submissions from those he touched over his long and glorious career.
The end of his journey came with him under our umbrella, and because of that, I'm feeling a deep sense of responsibility to insure he's properly put to rest.
He was full of love, and kindness for all that had come in his wake. No man ever loved his children more than Dene loved Sam and Liz and especially Hayleigh.
Mary Beth, Gracie and I were his closest family as his life ended, and with that position we feel the need to take the lead to ensure anything done "for Dene" will directly benefit "Dene's daughters" that he gave endlessly to.
We're in the process of making that happen, and will post the "How To Help Dene's Girls" stuff on
www.mobyinthemorning.com and get it to the trades ASAP.
Thanksgiving week isn't the best time to get a ball like this rolling.
Dene would have never begun something of this magnitude at the beginning of a 3 day week.
Honestly, this might be better, because there's no time for grief. We've got a big job to do, and very little time to get it done.
My list of those to send this to is painfully short. Those that read it directly from me, would you be so kind as to forward to others that you're aware of that might need/want to see it.
Thank you & God bless,
MOBY
