I don’t love the Internet for its marketing opportunities or its social media party. I don’t love it for the wealth of information available at my fingertips and certainly not for the dancing kitten videos.
I love the Internet because tonight, when my husband and his siblings were facing what may be their mother’s final illness, Aunt Carol sent an email. Here we sat in Missouri and Florida, doing our best to be good children in a hard situation, and on a distant coast, Aunt Carol reached out to help us.
She wrote from California, where she fights her own battles with the infirmities of age. And she encouraged us. She reminded us about the rich life her sister has lived and about the glorious Life just ahead. She told us we have done well, as children, and that we will know how to walk this part of the journey, when the time comes. She told us that ninety-plus years is probably enough on this side of the veil, and that it is okay to be ready to let go.
Really, her benediction could not have meant more tonight if she’d given it in person and sealed it with a kiss. And that, Dear Reader, is why I love the Internet. Because it connects us.