A sombre day, as the community of bloggers that I have been a part of for 13 years lost one of its most prominent members. Donna Diggins, of Buffalo NY (USA), succumbed to cancer yesterday afternoon local time. She had been ill for some time. I have written a personal tribute to Donna on the Silent Keyboards blog, and link to that.
I have never met Donna in person, and that goes for virtually all who were part of J-land (as it was called when on AOL). Yesterday's loss is a strong reminder that you can become quite attached and fond of someone you meet on-line, a phenomenon that I've been familiar with for nearly 15 years. Some people, perhaps blinded by the negative side of on-line connections, ridicule this. I think that's cruel. I have met a number of people in person that I had previously only communicated with via the WWW. My impression was correct in all of these cases. Yes, you miss the non-verbal communication, you just read words and see emojis and images. You don't see people's facial expressions, the inflections of the voice. But that actually does not matter. I have lost a friend. Her family have lost a sister, a mother and an aunt.
May she rest in peace.
I loved her too my friend.
ReplyDelete