I have tears tonight for someone I never met. She just appeared, as new blog friends do, and I came to know her name and her face. I read her blog – not always, but occasionally, as is often the case when I come across someone I’m just getting to know whose words reach out from the computer screen and touch something in me.
If the blogosphere is made up of circles she and I danced in ours, occasionally crossing paths and sharing a word or a smile on the way by.
One day I was on Twitter and realized I wasn’t following her. I fixed that straight away, naturally, and not long after I got the notification that she had followed me too. We both laughed. “How could I not have been following you?” “I know! I thought that too!” Maybe we had just assumed. Maybe it was a Twitter goblin unfollowing people without my permission. Either way, we both fixed that link in our circles.
And so we danced.
I saw her around, we shared a few comments, I read her blog.
She seemed better, and then got sick, and the community rallied. I sent her a Lego figure, because No Princess Fights Alone.
She wasn’t well, and I watched her updates with fear and hope and little understanding of what it must be like to fight cancer for five years. To fight it and beat it and fight it again, on and on while your two small boys stand by.
There are no words except goodbye, because today our community lost one of our lights and tonight my world is darker because of it.
Susan – @whymommy – you were loved. And will be missed.
