Alisa

Sometimes being an irreverent, mostly bratty and always verbose blogette has its limitations.

Like, when a very sweet colleague named Alisa contracts a swift and fatal blood disorder, all within the span of the "holiday break,"and dies before you even get back to work or knew she was feeling unwell. And the blogette really, really needs to address this monstrous outrage via the self-indulgent catharsis known as "blogging," but the subject matter and the most logical way of addressing it is SO out of kilter with the flippant tone and content of her customary blah-blah-blah stomping ground. What does a humbled and rebuked-by-real-life blogette do then?

She remembers that four years earlier, she was the only one with a digital camera that Alisa knew to ask to have a few digital photos of herself taken. And as the blogette tries to process the bizarreness of a single mom of a ten-year-old boy going from full bloom life to funeral arrangements within three weeks, she searches for and finds a photo she took of beautiful Alisa against a backdrop of red fall leaves.

She realizes that maybe Alisa's family has never seen this beautiful photo, and tries to think of a way to share this gift with these grieving people she has never met. So she creates a fresh, quiet, and respectful online space where she can post a visual eulogy to Alisa for people to visit when they are ready, and return to as often as they want.

And it makes her feel better. She hopes it will make Alisa's family and friends feel better, too.

Turn your speakers on.