Saturday, November 22, 2008

Digital Ghosts from the past...

Something happened to me today, while I was minding my own business.. Something that I did not expect to happen... less than two months ago I lost a dear friend to Cancer, I'm sure we all know someone who got taken in by this horrible disease. Her and I had been friends for over a decade now, almost two in fact. We spent hours talking to one another online, I confided in her, things that you would only tell a friend that you trust 110%.

Anyhow, I had been having problems with my computer, had a 500gb hard drive fail and was backing up files onto several portable usb drives and recovering from the now defunct drive to preserve the tens of thousands of files I've collected over the years. Out of the blue and without warning there it was on my instant messenger. For only a fraction of a second I noticed she was online... W00t? First I had this extreme sense of excitement... I had a lot to say to my friend. Then only a second later my heart sunk to the bottom of my chest and I felt terrible as I realized that it was not her because she was gone.

It's not practical to keep users on your list that you know will never log on again but I can't find the strength to delete her. I'm not sure why her name popped up, perhaps her family booted her computer one last time while going through her estate, or perhaps it was just part of the bad computer day I've been having I dunno... But Isn't it a strange thought to still keep users on your computer including their email address after they have passed away? At what point do you choose to delete their contacts, or should you?

I'm truly stumped over this one and feel so sad that I can't just send an instant message to her to tell her that I miss her... Or perhaps I can... She may not get it, but it will make me feel better :)

If you have comments on this one I'd really be interested in reading them... What have you or would you have done in this situation?

Cheers!

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