Ode to an Email Pal

The Bag Lady has a serious issue she wants to share with you today. Years ago, when she first got a computer and was hooked up to the Internet, she decided to do some family tree research.
She found a lot of helpful information posted on a Nebraska website. There was also some information that could only be accessed by what they call a look-up volunteer. These amazing people will do research for you that otherwise you would have to travel long distances to do yourself.
One such volunteer helped the Bag Lady immensely; copying information and sending it to her via email. Not long after he sent her the information, she got another email from him. It was a chatty, brief email, quite innocuous, but the Bag Lady, being quite paranoid, was hesitant to answer. She read it and re-read it, and finally sent an equally brief and rather non-informative response. After all, she knew nothing about this person, other than his name and the fact that he lived in Nebraska. Soon, along came another chatty, equally innocuous email. The Bag Lady answered that one, too, and soon became e-pals with this terrific man. He is retired, in his 70’s, with a wife and 3 daughters and several grand-children.
They have corresponded at least weekly ever since, so a few weeks ago, the Bag Lady was starting to get a little worried when she hadn’t heard from him for a couple of weeks. Along came an email from his wife, explaining that Jerry was ill and hadn’t been able to get on the computer, but was hoping to be better soon and get back to normal. The Bag Lady replied with wishes for a speedy recovery.
Then along came another email, also from his wife, with the Really Bad News. Jerry has cancer. Not bad enough that he has cancer, but he has it in two locations. Turns out the brain cancer was easier to deal with than the lung cancer. The last the Bag Lady heard, Jerry was too weak for the big blast of chemo and/or radiation that the doctors want to give him for the lung cancer.


The Bag Lady would like to take this opportunity to thank Jerry for his kindness, and to let him know how much she values his friendship, and hopes that he beats this disease into the ground! She hopes all of you will join with her in sending a message to the Powers-That-Be, (whoever, whatever is out there, ruling our world) to help Jerry survive this and go on for a great long time.
(Jerry, I love ya' like an uncle and hope you get well soon!)