TheBanyanTree: A Life Lived Online

[Sally Larwood]

I'll have to look at this Monique. I've never done a transfer that way. I only use paypal with a debit to my cr card. If you can explain, I'm happy to do that. 

Sal 

Sent from my iPad 

> On 24 Dec 2013, at 8:58, Monique <monique.colver at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Sally really is.
> 
> I am not.
> 
> By the way, Sal, I don't think we take PayPal, but you can send me money by Paypal and I can add it manually. I did that with a check my cousin gave me Friday.
> 
> Monique
> Sent using alien technology
> 
>> On Dec 23, 2013, at 11:45 AM, Indiglow <indiglow at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> 
>> You are such a sweet and loving soul!
>> J
>> 
>> 
>> ________________________________
>> From: Sally Larwood <larwos at me.com>
>> To: A comfortable place to meet other people and exchange your own *original* writings. <thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com> 
>> Sent: Monday, December 16, 2013 2:34 PM
>> Subject: Re: TheBanyanTree: A Life Lived Online
>> 
>> 
>> I saw that on FB but didn't realise what it was about. Good on you Monique. A worthwhile cause.  Great that people are contributing. Can we use paypal?
>> 
>> Sal 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad 
>> 
>>> On 17 Dec 2013, at 9:06, Monique Colver <monique.colver at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> His wife died Friday while in the hospital. She never got to go home.
>>> 
>>> I've started a fundraising campaign for their daughter's education find. So
>>> far, we've raised over 2k.
>>> 
>>> Monique
>>>> On Dec 3, 2013 10:17 AM, "Monique Colver" <monique.colver at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Not mine, of course, though it may seem like it.
>>>> 
>>>> I'm on this list. Not this list, another list. I've been on there for years
>>>> -- it's for people in my profession -- bookkeepers, accountants, CPA's,
>>>> EA's, etc. I've been on there for so long that after my surgery in the
>>>> distant past a group from the list sent me flowers. Some of us have met,
>>>> some of us are friends, some of us are friends but haven't met yet.
>>>> 
>>>> There's a guy on the list. There's always a guy. He shares everything
>>>> that's going on with his life, and many people find him insufferable not
>>>> from the sharing, but because he's often a key troublemaker when political
>>>> discussions go awry. There aren't supposed to be any political discussions,
>>>> but they pop up now and then. He's annoying enough with his pronouncements
>>>> that I've considered switching sides merely because I don't like being on
>>>> his side.
>>>> 
>>>> But that's a pretty weak excuse for switching my political persuasion, so I
>>>> haven't. But this guy . . . he was a history major in college, so he's
>>>> certain he knows everything and those who disagree with him are
>>>> fearmongerers (?) and not paying attention. And when it's pointed out to
>>>> him that he's often the problem, he doesn't get it, his level of
>>>> comprehension often being not as much as is required.
>>>> 
>>>> A couple of years ago he shared that he had a girlfriend, Shannon, and that
>>>> they were going to get married.
>>>> 
>>>> He kept us apprised of their march toward the altar. Many wished him well.
>>>> 
>>>> He keeps us notified of scifi marathons and classic radio shows. He talks
>>>> about how well done some tv shows are, like the Walking Dead (which I've
>>>> never seen, despite my love of zombies).
>>>> 
>>>> He told us of a car accident he was in where the other driver, who had
>>>> caused the accident, was killed. That shook him up.
>>>> 
>>>> He told us when he married Shannon.
>>>> 
>>>> Then Shannon got pregnant! While some of us may have thought, "poor kid,"
>>>> we congratulated him.
>>>> 
>>>> He talked of his wife often, and her pregnancy.
>>>> 
>>>> He emailed me once and asked if my book would offend his wife. She's a
>>>> psychiatric nurse and he thought I might be in the business of bashing
>>>> people in the industry. He's oblivious to what goes on around him in the
>>>> wider world. I told him I didn't know if it would offend her, or if she'd
>>>> like it, that I really couldn't tell him. So he didn't buy the book, and no
>>>> big deal to me. It was just a strange question, I thought.
>>>> 
>>>> Shannon got transferred to a remote location, as if West Virginia itself
>>>> weren't remote enough. Now they were moving to a remoter place.
>>>> 
>>>> He wrote about his struggle with his business, how he didn't know how to go
>>>> remote with his clients, and he kept asking the same marketing questions
>>>> year after year until some people threw up their hands in impatience.
>>>> 
>>>> The baby was born, and he often talked of taking care for her while he was
>>>> working.
>>>> 
>>>> The baby's not yet a year old.
>>>> 
>>>> And Shannon, a lifelong nonsmoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer, and they
>>>> couldn't fix it, they could only slow it down.
>>>> 
>>>> And this guy is faced with losing his wife and having a small baby who
>>>> won't remember much of her mother.
>>>> 
>>>> The other day she went to the hospital to have her lungs drained, and they
>>>> found more cancer they hadn't known about.
>>>> 
>>>> They're getting a second opinion.
>>>> 
>>>> Meanwhile, people send emails telling him they can beat it if they will
>>>> just think positively.
>>>> 
>>>> We're a stubborn people, us humans. That's probably a good thing, but if I
>>>> ever get cancer, which is likely with my family history, and people tell me
>>>> that I can just think it away, I'm likely to virtually smack them upside
>>>> the head.
>>>> 
>>>> I've never smacked anyone anywhere except in self-defense, so that's really
>>>> not likely. I'm more talk than bite.
>>>> 
>>>> I can't add to the chorus of "We're praying for you!" because I don't do
>>>> that, but I can hope her cancer goes into spontaneous remission and then
>>>> goes away by magic. I hope the same for another friend on the east coast
>>>> who also has a terminal lung cancer. And another friend's daughter on that
>>>> same list, who has been fighting cancer for six years. It just keeps
>>>> getting worse and they've removed much of her. She has three children, two
>>>> of them not much older than the cancer. They're all young, all these women.
>>>> 
>>>> We're no longer bound by geography, by a closeness in knowing people
>>>> face-to-face. We live in a world where Don's sadness can be shared with a
>>>> group of people all over the US and Canada, some of whom don't care for
>>>> him, but when someone's faced with the horrible things that happen in life
>>>> that doesn't matter so much. We're all of us united against the common
>>>> enemy. We hope for the best for those we know, even if they've annoyed us
>>>> in the past. We can transcend social constructs and meaningless barriers if
>>>> we just listen.
>>>> 
>>>> M
>>>>