Internet friends

 I watch Sunday Morning every Sunday and think of the guy...was he on Compuserve?...that I used to write to who one day said "I think you'd like this show."  I don't remember his name now, but he was from Maine and he was gay and we wrote to each other frequently, until he developed cancer and committed suicide.  That was -- oh lord -- how many years ago?  Long before Facebook.

It got me thinking about the friends I have made on the internet, many of whom have been friends for decades, people who are not part of my daily real life life, many of whom are no longer in my internet life.

There was ...was his name Bob? ... whom I met on CompuServe.  A group of us were good internet friends, but his wife considered us "imaginary people" and after awhile he left our group.  I wonder what he's doing now and what his wife is doing?

There was the journalist -- we started our journals at about the same time -- who became a good friend.  When I was losing weight, he decided to lose weight too and he became athletic.  He always wrote to me on the anniversary of my journal each year.  He was doing a triathlon one year and had a heart attack and died.  I think about him every year on my anniversary, since he was the only one who remembered it.

I remember Schuyler, and the months before she was born and how concerned her father was that he would not be a good father.  Schuyler was born and ultimately they feared that she couldn't speak.  They had her tested and discovered she was not able to speak recognizable words.  I was part of a group that donated money so they could buy her first "speaking machine."  I've followed her through her troubles in school.  I sent her birthday gifts when she was in love with dinosaurs.  I celebrated when she graduated from high school and now she's in her 20s and working.  She still doesn't speak.  Her father wrote a book, "Schuyler's Monster" when she was young and it became a best seller.  The strange thing about Schuyler is that in all these years her father has never once communicated with me.  He doesn't answer messages.  She recently had a serious problem which he posted about but said he didn't want to talk about it on line and if you wanted to know, to write  to him.  I did, but he didn't answer.  I don't have a clue why he doesn't like me, but I've been in his life for more than 20 years.

A group of women became friends on CompuServe.  We were friends for years and then one year decided we should meet, so we all met in Colorado.  The weekend was such fun that we started having yearly meetings.  Our last meeting was on 9/11.  We were in a hotel in London when the plane flew into the buildings in New York. I guess 5 of us are still part of the group (3 have died), two in England and the other 3 of us here in the US.  We visit each other one on one and follow each other on Facebook.

There was Cathy, in a bad marriage.  We supported her and were with her when she left her husband (which was why we had that meeting in Colorado, to give her something to think about other than leaving her husband) and when she decided to move across the country.  She has disappeared now.  She's in her 80s or 90s so she may be dead.  I don't know.

Before I met Peggy face to face, we were email friends.  Our friend Olivia introduced us on line.  We were both big animal fans. Every day we both logged into Africam, she at night in Australia, me in the morning in California and we chatted about the animals we were seeing.  

I was friends with David Gerrold (who wrote Star Trek's "The Trouble with Tribbles") for years before I knew his real name.  He used a different name on CompuServe.  Now it seems like we have been friends forever.  I followed him during his search for a child to adopt (the boy is now 40, married and father of 2). When Paul died, he came to Davis to perform the graveside service since the priest who did it for David was so horrible.

I "met" Steve Schalchlin through a group of his friends, talking about his show, "The Last Session."  Steve and I exchanged some emails and I made arrangements to meet him.  We have since become very good friends and I acted as his publicity person for awhile.  He lives in New York now and I will probably never see him again in person, but we are still good friends.

Now I'm making friends through Facebook, though I don't get as involved as I did when I was in CompuServe, but there are friends who have sent me amazing things, mostly involving squirrels. I have sent gifts to people that are having emotional problems.

It is amazing to me how many friends I've made through the internet, some of whom I have never (and probably will never) meet in person, but whom I consider good friends.

It is so sad to me that my friend Gilbert Russak, from The Lamplighters, died before  the internet was a possibility.  How he would have loved it.