Monday, May 12, 2008

A Thoughtful Gesture

Yesterday, a regular reader of my blog, John Sherck, contacted me on IM to wish me a happy birthday.

We chatted for awhile about various things and he eventually commented about my blog entry that day. I'd said that I wished I could stop by the cemetery and leaves flowers on my mother's grave on Mother's Day. As he lives in the same city where my parents are buried, he offered to take a trip down there and leave some flowers on the grave for me. He added that he'd take some photos, so that I could have a "virtual visit to the cemetery".

I gave him directions to where the grave was located in this large cemetery, where the first graves date from the 17th century, hoping for the best. Before he signed off, he promised me he'd email me later about what had transpired, and said he'd send photos if he'd found the grave.

Hours later, when I got home from work, his email was waiting for me, with an account of how he found the grave, along with nine photos complete with descriptions.

I am quite touched by his kindness and I'm using this entry to thank him publicly for his thoughtfulness. Below is one of the nine photos he snapped.

Thanks, John.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was very sweet of him to do that. His gesture of kindness has now gone further than he might have suspected, because it will go some way towards mitigating the general assumption that it is dangerous to make real friends on the internet.

I now travel to meet around a dozen people I've met online, and some come to stay with me too. Caution is advisable, of course, but on the whole, people are people are people, wherever you meet them.

And it's good to know there are some good, kind, genuine people out there.

Lex Valentine said...

What an awesome thing to do! John deserves a little applause for that. YAY JOHN!!

I love it when people that I interact with online turn out to be really nice, genuine people. I just met a fellow local blogger who just got back from TequilaCon 08, a blogger event. She was a great person and I hope to get to spend more time with her in person.

I'm so glad John helped make your birthday that much better.