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MY TURN

An Electronic Cure for Despair

Sigrid needed a reason to keep fighting. A quick e-mail to our friends did more than I'd imagined.

NEWSWEEK
Mar 24, 2008 Issue

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  • Posted By: Johnny47 @ 03/27/2008 3:16:36 PM

    Comment: As a one who is suffering from cancer, I know how important that is. When some one reads my blog, www.Surviving-Oral-Cancer.com, and then emails me to tell me they have been through it, it really perks up my day. Sometimes you think you are all alone in this, it is nice to hear from others who have been through simular situations. There have been days when I just wanted to hang it up and s simple email comes and changes everything. Compassion, like chivalry is not dead, just not seen as often as we would like.

  • Posted By: SLangshur @ 03/21/2008 5:08:07 PM

    Comment: I was heartened to read this column describing how the outpouring of e-mail messages raised the spirits of Rich and his wife Sigrid as she battled cancer. My husband Eric and I had a similar experience 10 years ago when doctors told us our firstborn son Matthew had a congenital heart defect. With help from my brother, we set up an interactive web page, mostly to update family and friends about his condition. Before Matthew was 2, he had undergone three surgeries and multiple hospitalizations, and we had received literally thousands of encouraging messages, many from people we had never met. What was most surprising was how much their support meant to us, how it made us feel connected to the compassion and love that we all express more readily during difficult times. This experience changed our lives and led us to found CarePages.com, a community with more than three million members. Like Sigrid???s online friends, they too are helping others with health problems find emotional comfort and healing. - Sharon Langshur

  • Posted By: andy232 @ 03/19/2008 1:18:23 PM

    Comment: This was a great article. My family and I read emails to my mom (the screen was too far away to see) while she had cancer. Even though she ultimately lost her fight, it was something special to share. Carepages and caringbridge are two wonderful web sites that have sprung from this, and I commend the people who started them.

  • Posted By: Floridave @ 03/15/2008 6:07:16 PM

    Comment: What an uplifting essay. I was one of those that saw little potential at first when the internet became universally accessible, but now I appreciate it's potential. Sigrid is one of many hospitalized internet users that has brought the world to her lap through email. I have a friend in a nursing home fighting Multiple Sclerosis that would be close to insane by now without her internet access.
    There are many who never pick up paper and pen to write a letter---- that think nothing of sending a fast email or two. The internet has done more to universalize communications than the cell phone ever thought possible.
    Best wishes to Sigrid as she fights her battle. I am so pleased to hear that her spirits are lifted by emails, and hope that my message is one that helps her with her battle. Good luck with book sales, but more importantly, good luck with your health. Courage and determination are a big part of winning, and I wish you an unlimited supply of both.

 
 
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