I'm sorry that you had to do that, Allyson, but I'm glad that you could, if that makes sense. There was a My Name Is Earl about a memorial for a guy who had many friends online and I keep thinking about it. I did meet ita, but I'm sorry we never spent more time together because she was as cool as she seemed, even when she was pointing out sloppy thinking or trying to mock you(mostly gently) for not making sense. I got CoMMED by her once for calling life "my Adena Watson case", which is feeling totally true right now, even though I treasured it at the time cause Ms. ita was sort of tough to impress, and I did(well, her, and some strange girls in Norway)

Debetesse may have a number for Cabil

There was a My Name Is Earl about a memorial for a guy who had many friends online and I keep thinking about it.

I really liked that episode. It seems so rare for TV and movies to acknowledge that online friendships can be just as real and fulfilling—hell, moreso—as "real-life" friendships.

You know what I keep returning to, in Allyson's post?

Some of you guys posted upthread about how she was alone when it happened, and how it made things more difficult and more heartbreaking.

And Allyson wrote:

She found ita on the couch, with her laptop open. She had been reading her email when she passed.

And I don't care if it makes me a blind-spotted silver-line-er, but I can't help but think - no, not think, feel - that it somehow made her a little bit, a tiny bit, less alone, having the internet with her - not the technical parts of it, the computer parts, in which she was so good, but the people part, the way she connected through these technical and computer tools, with the hearts and souls of people.

I mean, we ache so much because there was such a connection, even for people who never met her in face-space. So I think it's not entirely my looking-for-any-sort-of-comfort in choosing to see this specific not-alone meaning in this line.

Sorry, I don't feel like I'm expressing myself properly. It's 1:30am here, and my eyes are burning from a combination of tears and can't-go-to-sleep-ness. This is not a good combination for coherent phrasing. Sorry.

I thought the same thing, Nilly. It sounds like she just slipped away while online, and I find that comforting.

Nilly, I wanted to make a similar comment, but I'm glad I just waited until you made it better for me.

She found ita on the couch, with her laptop open. She had been reading her email when she passed.

And I don't care if it makes me a blind-spotted silver-line-er, but I can't help but think - no, not think, feel - that it somehow made her a little bit, a tiny bit, less alone, having the internet with her - not the technical parts of it, the computer parts, in which she was so good, but the people part, the way she connected through these technical and computer tools, with the hearts and souls of people.

No, Nilly, I thought the same thing.

It's true, Nilly. Because of y'all, I'm never feel alone as long as the computer is on and the interwebs are working.

I've cried a thousand times more than I did when my mother died two years ago, because: mom, a few weeks shy of 96 years old. This is so untimely.

wrod.