I got the news this morning from fellow ex-TV Squadder Joel Keller that an also former writer for TVS, Allison Waldman, had passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer. This was truly sad and surprising news to me, as not only was Allison one of the sweetest people I’ve had the pleasure of working with, but — at least to me — she kept to herself about her health issues. We were still in contact with one another, especially during the time we discussed her successfully-funded Kickstarter project, Barbara Memories, and still she gave no indication she wasn’t well.

Allison’s contributions on TV Squad were a bit outside of what long-time readers of the site were used to, but there was surely value in what she wrote. At one time Allison was contributing regularly to a new column about soaps, and there were plans to expand that into a TV Squad offshoot, perhaps called “TV Squad Daytime,” where she’d pretty much rule the roost. It’s a shame we never got to see that happen. Thankfully, though, you can still catch an archive of Allison’s TV Squad posts, as well as those she wrote for other outlets like SoapCentral.com. She also has some journal-like entries on YouTube — probably where you can see some her most recent work.

Besides Barbara Memories, Allison also wrote The Barbra Streisand Scrapbook. So, as you might have guessed, saying Allison was a huge Barbara Streisand fan is an understatement. Her nickname and Twitter handle, “Barbfile,” was a fitting one. I’m glad she got to see Barbara Memories completed and shared with other like-minded fans before she passed away.