Young Writers Society

Hello, everyone.

It's been an insanely long time since I've been on here, and I'm sorry that I've come just for one short, sad post. But today is Conrad Rice's birthday -- an active member of YWS from years ago, who last posted here in 2008. He was one of my closest friends, and I know many of us loved him dearly.

He would have turned 23 today, but he was killed in a car accident July 6, 2011.

I just wanted to put up a small mention of him here. I know it's been 5 years since he was an active member of this community, but many of those who were his friends are still on here. If you remember him -- whether from CIA, chat, Facebook, his writing, anything -- feel free to post here. I know many of us have commented on his wall, but I'm hurting missing him today, and thought this would be a good place to offer support to one another and remember him.

He was a great writer and friend, and I am privileged to have known him. He'll be missed. <3

Dearest Conrad,

I never knew you. It seems I joined a day before your death, which makes me really sad. I wish I could have met you, or spoken to you, or something. I hear stories about you, and from them I can tell that you were a kind member of the site. I wish I could have had the honor to see you when you were green, or reviewed your works, or received a review from you.

Rest in peace. You are missed.

I saw the post that his mom put on his Facebook, and I cried my eyes out. He will be truly missed.

I had been a member on this site for about six months when I started to go through a rough patch. I'd often run into Conrad in chat, and just talking to him would make me feel better because he had such a positive presence. And he gave some killer reviews, too.

I miss him. I still have hundreds of pages worth of our conversations saved to my computer. He was such a wonderful guy. Always a good secret keeper, even if he didn't always know the right thing to say, he always tried to be the best person he could. He was a good friend to me.

I wish I had saved our conversations. I searched through all my old PMs with him for anything -- that's why I came back to this site. I had nothing left on FB.

Hey everyone,

I'm Conrad's sister and I was really missing him today so I came on here to just feel a little closer to him since he's so far away. You all are so sweet and there isn't a moment when I think about Conrad's friends that I don't think about you guys. I wanted to say you all are not forgotten and I know you all are hurting. I hope you all are doing well and are getting through this the best way possible. I'm praying for you guys. Feel free to message me anytime here or on Facebook. Thank you all so much for still caring about Conrad. I am so humbled by you guys.

- Sherry Rice