5 years later, In honor of my mother..

[Lien]

I'm sorry for your loss. You were so very young when she passed and yet you write about her like someone much older. It's as if she's tried to share herself with you at double the normal speed, so you could benefit from her love and wisdom long after she was gone.
I remember your mom well. I spent a lot of time on these boards in the 16 years after my diagnosis in 2004, so we "met" regularly. I agree that you should print out everything she has written. One day it might be gone from the internet.
My father passed two years ago and going through his stuff, I found the letters my parents wrote to friends and family during the time we lived in California (we're from the Netherlands, Europe). It's amazing to read their thoughts on things that I never discussed with them. Take good care of yourself.

[donocco]

Anna

These posts are important to you and, as Lien said, you may not be aware how transient these boards can be. I worked as a consultant pharmacist on an AOL breast cancer group in the late 1990s to 2008. The work I did on this board was more important to me than working at Rite Aids. In 2008 the Board was dissolved. There was one woman on the board whose screen name was Exblaze, She was a woman in her early 40s with metastatic breast cancer and two young children. Not seeing them grow up was her biggest concern. She died in June 2006 a few days before her daughter graduated high school.

She was an exceptional woman. To me she was almost saintly. Certainly with her condition and children she would be entitled to think mostly of herself. She didnt. She was very nurturing and protective of all the other affected women on the board. To the point of being self sacrificing

I didnt have a printer so I spent months writing down her posts over the years. I still have them in two notebooks. I told her older brother I would write a book about them but I never have and feel guilty about this. I just dont know what to write. Maybe someday I will.

I can understand having these posts so available to you may be painful right now. You could print them and give them to an aunt or uncle for safekeeping until you feel ready to possess them.

Paul