I spent most of the day rebuilding the blog of a lady by the name of Pamela Hilger. She died 6 years ago, after a 10-month battle against breast cancer. Her blog was one of the first AOL journals, but it was lost in 2008 when AOL pulled its journals service. Using the Wayback When machine on the WWW, I managed to retrieve about 130 entries from August 2003 until November 2005, when she moved to another blogsite. This one was salvaged in 2008; the first blog was not.
Reading back those entries is in fact profoundly saddening, as the outcome is by now known to me. From someone who is blogging about her cats, her daughter and her ex, Pamela changes into a cancer patient, looking only at the positive - whilst all points to the negative. The blog also demonstrates how things have changed in another aspect. Until 2008, blogging in J-land was done several times a day; my old blog Northern Trip would have updates up to a dozen times a day. Now, I manage one, sometimes two entries a day. The rest goes through Facebook and Twitter.
I think it's wonderful that you could retrieve some of those entries. Hearing about that lovely lady reminds me how fast life can change for us. I keep counting my blessings every day and trying to live life to the fullest. It's a cold wet day here keeping me inside for the most part.
ReplyDeleteI read part of the way through his lovely lady's journal before I had to stop. I will return, even though I now know the outcome also Guido. A breast cancer survivor myself, having gone through the dreaded chemo and radiotherapy, I can truly empathise with her and also recognise her determination to beat cancer wih positivity. I so wish the outcome for her had been the same as mine. My agressive cancer was stage two when they found it and I am blessed that it has now gone.
ReplyDeleteI pray that the future for likewise women will be the same as myself and that there will be no more deaths caused by this silent enemy.
May God rest her soul and thank you for caring enough to delve back into her archives so that I might ge to know her and her family too. I will hold her and them in my memory.
You are a blessing and an angel in disguise.
Thank you Guido!
Jeanie
Jeanie