Mistakes & Omissions

I get a lot of email. But about 75% of it is junk. Absolute junk. Pitches from PR companies, spammy requests for product reviews and plugs, newsletters I didn't ask to receive and about four million emails from Amazon.com telling me that since I once came very nearly close to buying a copy of such-and-such book, perhaps I would be interested in THIS such-and-such book, which is now on sale and eligible for free shipping on the third Tuesday of every month.

The problem with all this extra junk is that I end up skipping real emails. An message from an old friend gets sandwiched between some spam and a Sephora marketing message and I glaze right over it by mistake. I have 922 messages in my inbox right now, and God knows how many of them I really, really ought to have read.

I spent about an hour today going through my Inbox and trying to clear out the junk and catch those unread messages and found one from reader Cindy asking me to spotlight Snickollet as soon as possible, since she could really use our support.

I'd stumbled onto Snickollet a few months ago, actually. I think someone emailed me the link. I'd added her to my Google Reader and checked in occasionally -- she has very young twins, a great sense of humor and a husband who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

I meant to write about her here. I really did. I have no idea why I didn't.

Cindy sent her email on April 11th. Snickollet's husband died that night.

She's still writing, of course. She has her babies and things to do and arrangements to make and life goes on. She could still use our support, just like Cindy said.

Comments

[Marilyn]

Thanks for sharing this. It gives me the perspective I need, that no matter how rough my day seems, it could be worse. She has my support indeed.

[Jenny H.]

As well as mine.

[sherry]

That is so sad. It just made some of the stuff we're dealing with feel very unimportant right now. My husband is at a friend's house helping him with his computer and I suddenly wish he was home right this second because reading that gave me an incredible need to tell him how much I love him.

[Colleen]

Wow. Thanks so much for sharing that blog.

[snickollet]

Your support here is very timely. As I work through the grief, I find the comments and messages I get from readers have become all the more important.

Thank you, Internets, for making this a little more bearable.

[CPA Mom]

Thank you for this. I wish I had this available to me when I was widowed so many years ago. I went over to say a little prayer. Your heart is so big Amy. Thank you.

[tracey]

Goodness, there's a little perspective. Gulp.