The following has been sent.
I am acutely aware that it sounds very (perhaps excessively) formal, but we--none of us to my knowledge--are acquainted with the Enola's family, and they very likely have no clue that we as a community even exist.
Dear Mr [Omitted],
I hope that you will forgive the unsolicited contact.
I have been sent your email address by your late cousin’s friend [Omitted] in order that I might convey both my personal condolences and those of the membership or the Forteana Forums, an online forum of which Randy was a member for some eighteen years; indeed, that understates the matter considerably: he was part of the core membership, and since 2018 served as a member of our staff. I regret that apart from what I knew of Randy's late brother, I am not at all acquainted with your family, but I should like, all the same, to offer you and his other relatives our deepest sympathies on your loss.
Although Randy and I never met in person, we spoke on a daily basis and were in a ‘virtual’ sense friends. Randy alerted us to his health problems in the wake of his hospitalisation prior to Christmas, but it has still come as a great shock to learn of his death; when last we spoke, he seemed in good spirits and was making plans for his rehabilitation. Since we announced his death to our membership 48hrs ago, we have seen a long succession of tributes to a man equally liked and respected for his generosity of spirit and prodigious intelligence—[Brief personal anecdote omitted]
If you should be so inclined, I am certain that Randy’s other virtual colleagues and fellow board members would be very glad to hear of any plans there might be for a funeral or memorial service, although, of course, I quite understand if such arrangements are to be kept within the family.
With sympathy at this difficult time
[Real Name Omitted]