Support Vigil for Sunriseast

bentshaftpaddle
Wed, 06 Feb 2013 23:04:27 +0000

Dear “virtual” friends of Sunriseeast,
I am a IRL friend. I just wanted to say, don’t underestimate the depth of comfort, friendship and support you gave Sunriseeast. Cancer is a lonely journey. Her kids were in college much of the time, her husband kept working so that they could hold onto their health insurance. Her professional identify by necessity had to go. Friends came by regularly, but there must have been a lot of lonely days for her. You truly became her friends, too, in a very sacred way that I had not realized until today, when for the first time I went back and read several of her entries. I realized as I read that the anonymity of this group gave her the freedom to share more deeply than she was often able to do with her IRL friends. She had always been fiercely independent, but as the cancer progressed, she had to learn to receive help and love from those of us around her (that “undeserved stuff” that she used to write about). I think, now, after reading those posts, you became a safe haven for her to explore her feelings about all of this and in the process to grow and be transformed in really beautiful ways. You were a huge blessing to her, and by extension, to all of us in her “real life.” May you go on in your “real” and “virtual” lives to bless others as you blessed her. In deep gratitude, bentshaftpaddle (a type of paddle used for canoeing on still waters)