Online Social Networking and the Death of a Blogger

Today, no photos or graphical images. Just warm memories and tears.

As workplace learning and performance professionals, it’s important that my colleagues and I ask this question of ourselves before we fall asleep each night:

What did you learn today?

This morning, I learned more about the power of online social networking, that is, where I first meet a person online through a blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, or some other cyberplace on the Internet, and then I have the good fortune to meet them in person to further develop that relationship.

After that, we go back to reinforcing our new relationship in cyberspace, hoping to meet in person again one day.

Sometimes we get that chance, and sometimes we don’t, yet we continue as colleagues and friends in cyberspace.

Today, I learned that my very favorite blogger in the whole world left it yesterday afternoon, after a long, wonderful journey on this planet. I suspected that something was very wrong when she hadn’t written since May 8th, and was fearing the inevitable. This morning, I found out that she had died from a post on her daughter’s blog.

The tears streaming down my cheeks for this blogger are just as intense as those for someone I know in person and see frequently.

I am grieving, feeling the loss, and I will miss GrannyJ more than I can express.

RIP GrannyJ, 1927-2010

Julie Woodman and her husband retired from Chicago to the mountains of northern Arizona, to the quaint town of Prescott. Under the moniker of GrannyJ, she wrote the Walking Prescott blog. I found her blog when my sister moved to Prescott a few years ago. GrannyJ’s blog is filled with beautiful photos of the area and a treasure trove of historical knowledge.

She was a retired journalist, and blogging kept her writing and reporting on life to a cyberspace audience that literally spanned the world. Quietly, she gained an international audience.

A very intelligent, witty, and warm blogger in her 80s, I asked GrannyJ if my husband and I could meet her and treat her to lunch on our next visit to Prescott. She said she’d be delighted. We met at The Raven Cafe, and now I wish I had written down what we talked about together so I could treasure the memory of that visit again.

After that F2F visit, she added me to her e-mail distribution list. Whenever I saw her name pop up in my Inbox, I rushed to open her messages. She would send out links to the most amazing articles and Web sites. She was our teacher, and we her very eager students.

Julie created a cyberlife filled with cyberrelationships that were genuine, that mattered. As she was able, she frequently met in person with the people she first met online. I hope that I’m filled with her love of life when I’m in my 80s.

There’s so much more I could say, but I can’t see what I’m typing due to the tears blurring my vision. So, I’ll end this with a brief tribute.

Thank You, GrannyJ

Julie, thank you so much for sharing yourself and your family with your cyberfriends. You broadened my horizons and my knowledge in countless ways, you were my teacher, and you invited me into friendship.

I love you and thank you.

And, I will miss you more than words can express.

I lift my coffee cup high in tribute to you!

~Anon in AV.