Thank you

Today was a relatively quiet day, despite a very heartbreakingly dramatic moment in court this morning in a matter in which I was not involved. I still felt pretty rotten when I left, for the young person who was so badly emotionally scarred and physically sick from this cold.  The cold I could do something about, so I did something I don't normally do: went to the doctor - well, not the doctor, exactly, the little "Minute Clinic" in our local CVS store.  Got some meds to help me out (turned down the codeine-laced cough syrup) and came home. I didn't have much energy, so after finishing up some phone calls and emails and paperwork and getting off work at the end of the day, I decided to organize my blog feed on feedly.com. Since google reader shut down, I've been using this and it's been good. 

So I went through the 300 or so blogs I was following and weeded them down to about 150, 112 of which (not counting my own) are about knitting if you can believe that! In the process of doing so, I took a brief look at each and deleted those that hadn't had any posts in more than 6 months or were about topics in which I was no longer interested. I kept a few that I hoped would repost or that had really good patterns I wanted to revisit not matter how long the blog was inactive. In the process of doing that, I happened upon Panhandle Jane's Panhandle Portals. "Jane" - a retired English teacher who never lost her love for a good book, a loving wife, mother, grandmother, was a kind presence on the internet.  My blog reader stopped showing new posts from her. I didn't think it particularly remarkable; people move, they develop other interests, social media has replaced the blog for a lot of people. In my forays today, I found this post by "Jane's" daughter, Carrie which explained "Jane's" absence from the blogosphere lo these many months:

What struck me about this entry was the incredible, selfless kindness Carrie exhibited.  In the midst of her own grief and loss, she reached out to all of us to offer words of hope and love. Thank YOU, Carrie, your mother must be incredibly proud of you:)! And "Jane," rest in peace. I hope to see you again someday.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2013

Thank you

Carrie (daughter) here.

Dear Readers of Panhandle Portals,

If you weren't following Caring Bridge during my mother's health saga, things did not go well. In addition to the stage 4 metastatic colon cancer that was diagnosed, she developed a series of complications from surgery, followed by heart problems, followed by more complications, followed by another surgery, followed by more complications. She passed away on June 4 very peacefully in hospice, and for that peace, we are so grateful.

I've spent the last several months unpacking boxes (not finished yet by any means!), getting the old house on the market, and lately, porting this blog into a book as a keepsake for my dad, my brother and me, and the granddaughters.

What a blessing you readers were to her. Whether you commented or not, she viewed her blog as a form of therapy, much like her fiber crafts, and that is because of her readers. Thank you for the time you took reading her writing, and to those of you with whom she interacted on Ravelry, etc.

We feel that we lost her far too young, but we are so thankful that she is Home, and we look forward to seeing her again.