To The Terror Community:

Sometimes I see a funny/cool thing online and think, “I ❤️ the internet,” and sometimes I see awful/hateful things and think, “I hate the internet.” Today is a ❤️ day on the internet, and let me tell you why:

I woke up this morning to a bunch of Twitter notifications and before I had my first cup of coffee, discovered that a group of people that I do not know were coming to the aid of my friend who has cancer.

I started a fundraiser for Barb a couple of weeks ago because my friend was not able to work and was stuck waiting around for a month before her surgery. At the time, we thought the surgery was going to do most of the heavy lifting getting rid of the cancer.

As we discovered once they had her open, there was a newly formed and inoperable tumor, so, Plan B.

A bit of background: my sister works in cancer research. Her best friend, who is also my friend, is also a cancer researcher, and...by virtue of analyzing things in this way, they have a level of calm about cancer that is probably not shared by most folks. I share that calm, just being close enough to them to get the information in the way they present it. It can seem cold to the casual observer. It's not meant to be, it's just...we see a problem and our brains get to work on the solution. We don't see the word "cancer" and collapse into a puddle, which is the more human thing to do.

When they got the initial diagnosis, Barb and her partner just “lost it”. Perfectly normal to do so. And when Kathy heard the word “inoperable”, yesterday, she lost it again. Perfectly normal.

We all sat with this information marinating over the evening. My researcher friend sent me some stuff in a calm-voiced email, and I was glad to hear that tone...that soothing sound of “OK, here’s what I would do,” coming from an expert that I trust.

And that thing...the immediacy of that information becoming available, was definitely an “ I ❤️ the internet” moment, but it gets better...

My friend is a horror fan. Barb has read every Stephen King , watched endless scary movies with my daughter (who also loves horror), and is mad-addicted to scary TV like The Walking Dead and The Terror. She joined some of their online communities, enjoys talking about them with other fans, and generally just has a ball with it. That’s “I ❤️ the Internet” Number 2. Fans! Worldwide! How great is that?

But today...today was the biggest “I ❤️ the Internet” day of all, because those Twitter notifications I got this morning? They were from those fans. Those fans, those actors, producers and other folks from that community, all saying, “we’d like to help”.

My friend is not internet savvy. She doesn’t Twitter, can manage Facebook, but doesn’t really know how to reach folks on a grand scale using this tool. When it came time to start a fundraiser, she had just me and my (purposely small) Facebook friends group plus Barb and Kat’s even smaller lists. They asked me to try to raise $3000 based on the premise that Barb would be back to work in a month or two and they just needed some temporary help. I started a $4K go fund me and started talking on the internet.

“Talking on the Internet” is a weird skill. I mean I think I suck at it, but it kind of reminds me of the days when I worked in Top 40 radio....you have a 20 second ramp! Be witty and informative, but mostly be quick! Oh no! The singer started singing! Shut up now!

And you just do that over and over again, until everyone knows the Phrase That Pays or whatever.

Good ole radio...

Anyway...

We pulled together a couple thousand dollars relatively quickly and I thought, this is OK. We’ll be OK.

Then Barb’s prognosis went from 75% 5-yr survival rate to 5%. (I keep wanting to retype that because I wish FIVE PERCENT was a fucking typo. It’s not.)

It became clear that she would never go back to work, might not be alive to vote in the 2020 election, would leave her partner of 25 years devastated, and, let’s face it, leave the world a lot less fun because she’s Barb, and we’re just damn lucky to have her.

That’s what I went to bed with last night. I will likely lose my friend, sooner rather than later. Fuck.

What I woke up to was...Twitter notifications. Fans and folks from The Terror saying hi. Helping. Inviting others to help, because Barb is one of them. This is the Internet. This is...fucking beautiful, is it not?

So...I ❤️ the Internet today. I’ll probably hate it later when my asshole cousin posts mean-spirited political memes on Facebook, but right now? Pure gold.

Cool thing about the Internet? I can also use it to send my undying gratitude. To all of you brilliant, gorgeous folks in The Terror community, you make my day. When Barb sees what you did, she’s gonna cry, but it will be good tears for a change, so THANK YOU.