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Goodbye, aelith1946
This weekend, I learned that aelith1946 - Aelith on Shejidan - has died. She was 63.
She contacted me last month via locked post to tell me her cancer had returned and spread, but that chemotherapy was going well and that a prognosis would be made "next year." Then, according to a note that her brother sent to felicitoussk8er, Aelith caught pneumonia due to her weakened immune system. Treatment was ineffective, and she died November 14.
When Aelith heard about my own illness on Shejidan, she instantly assumed the role of concerned older sister, pestering me to ask my doctors all the right questions and exhorting me to take an active role in my treatments. The news that she has lost this battle has left me sad and empty.
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>hugs back<
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There is a memorial thread going on in Shejidan.
>hugs<
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I'm having the usual survivor's guilt/regrets ... wish I'd talked to her more, etc.
>hugs<
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I'm having all those regrets about not having talked with her as much as I might, etc. sk8er gave me the brother's address, and I wrote him a note about how she'd been helping me.
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I've got all sorts of mixed-up guilty feelings because she confided in me because of our mutual health concerns but there were others on the board who interacted with her a lot more. She really was a wonderful person, though.
>hugs!<
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Thanks for coming by ... >hugs<
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I'm lucky to have people like you to stop by.
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The delay in talking about it was made things very weird ... I was asked to hold off until the mods - many of whom knew her better than I did (we two just had the shared-illness thing) - on the board felt able to deal with it and made a formal announcement. I was sort of in limbo from Saturday night until I wrote the post.
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Thanks; yes, very sad. I had half-convinced myself she would get better.
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It's a close group - a number of them have managed to get together IRL a couple of times. I'm not quite as much at ease there as I am with this crew on LJ, but a number of them have been very very kind and sweet to me over the years. I was touched by Aelith's protective and considerate response to the news of my own illness. The fact that she confided in me last month and then was gone so quickly was a real kick in the gut.
Thanks so much for the kind words here. >hugs<
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>clutches you<
I'm having some real survivor's guilt over this. It also opened up the issue of my own health again over there, so I'll have to grit my teeth and make a post. I just get tired of talking about it, but the kind folks over there can't see my locked posts here, so I just need to put on my big-girl panties and do it.
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I'm so sorry to hear this.
aelith
>Hugs back<
I know you've had your own encounters of this sort recently ... .