In 2007, I received a letter from pioneering lesbian writer Jane Rule announcing the impending publication of her collection of essays Loving the Difficult. Ever irreverent, Rule, then battling maladies that would lead to her death later that year, noted that she'd fancied a different title for the book. In so doing, she gave a nod to her activist sister-in-arms, journalist June Callwood.

"I heard a story about my friend, June ... taken to hospital, unconscious,"; Rule wrote from her home on Galiano Island. "She woke, looked around and said, 'Shit! I'm still here.' I thought it would make a wonderful title for my collection but have been persuaded to stay with the original.";

Published posthumously, Loving the Difficult (Hedgerow Press) won the 2009 Lambda Literary Award for non-fiction. In the essay "You Be Normal, or Else,"; Rule discussed what she had long decried as "the heterosexual cage of coupledom.";

"It's an odd moment for [homosexuals] to want to be legally married,"; she wrote. "What we forfeit by these ambitions is our greatest strength: we are free to define our own relationships in any way we choose."; The collection also includes, among other topics, Rule's reflections on her paralyzing childhood fear of the dark, money (it "talks";) and censorship ("a bad teacher";).

The enduring passion and politics of Jane Rule (1931-2007) were at the centre of a landmark gathering held in early June at the University of British Columbia. Supported with an anonymous $1.7 million donation to the Jane Rule Endowment for the Study of Human Relationships, the "Queerly Canadian"; conference brought together academics, activists, artists and independent scholars to share work inspired by Rule's lifelong advocacy for social justice.

For example, in a lecture peppered with humour, famed Montreal writer Nicole Brossard explored the complex contours of intimacy.

Jamie Lee Hamilton brought her experiences as a self-proclaimed "semi-retired sex trade worker"; to a panel discussion of the "golden age of prostitution"; in Vancouver's West End. "We were like family and protected each other back then,"; said Hamilton, recalling the mid-1970s to mid-1980s.

Author of Passionate Communities: Reading Lesbian Resistance in Jane Rule's Fiction, Smith College administrator Marilyn R. Schuster shared research from her forthcoming book on the correspondence between Rule and the late Body Politic journalist Rick Bebout, who died in June at age 59.

UBC professor of English Richard Cavell probed the recurring theme of mourning in Rule's writings. To be sure, his insights resonated with me. For all the arch conviviality Rule exuded from her plush armchair on Galiano, I often detected an undercurrent of sadness. Understandably, her solemn air deepened (or so it seemed to me) after the January 2000 death of her long-time partner Helen Sonthoff.

Indeed, in an interview first published in the Autumn 2006 issue of Cahoots magazine, Rule said: "For two years after Helen died I couldn't imagine why anyone came [to visit me on Galiano]. There was nobody here. And people would say I can feel Helen everywhere. I said she isn't. ... There's just this vast emptiness in your life. And you have to learn to deal with it.";

As for the rural enclave in which Rule and Sonthoff reigned as cherished icons for thirty years, the community is still grappling with the loss. A friend of the couple observed: "I think some people find it difficult to pass by their house because it's a symbol that triggers memories.";

Admirers can take solace in future Jane Rule conferences and the many publications that are sure to evolve from her archives at UBC. And during a recent chat with Donna Deitch, the Desert Hearts director said that she's writing a script that builds on her acclaimed 1985 film adapted from Rule's classic novel, Desert of the Heart. "The new movie will be about feminism in Manhattan circa 1968-1972 and include, as part of the story line, the characters in Desert Hearts,"; she explained. "It isn't a strict sequel, but expands on my previous film.";

I've long been intrigued by Rule's expansive relationship with blacks in Canada and the U.S. A discerning literary critic, Rule was the only person I asked to read my completed manuscript, Alice Walker: A Life, before publication. She instantly agreed and offered wise counsel. Rule was also an early supporter of Fred Booker, the late black Burnaby musician and author of Adventures in Debt Collection (Commodore Books, 2006).

And it was not lost on me that unlike at other Vancouver-area gatherings, I was rarely "the only raisin in the cornflake bowl"; during visits with Jane. That is to say that Jane welcomed a wildly diverse mix of people into her life. Moved by her wit, generosity and in later years, veil of grief, we all gladly came. In that regard, as in so many others, Jane Rule stood heads above her peers.

[Evelyn C. White is the author of Every Goodbye Ain't Gone: A Photo Narrative of Black Heritage on Salt Spring Island. Photographs by Joanne Bealy] (Dancing Crow Press, 2009).