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How I found this essay I don’t know.. it came up in my feed.. and while scanning it, for an unknown reason I decided to go back and read from the beginning.

It feels like a gift, John, that I get to read your story. 💞

Thank you for telling your mom the truth, and for telling your story here. I feel like I want to go back with you whenever you’re remembering.. maybe if you want, I could be there beside you, just be there with you, silently and in the shadow, holding your hand as you confirm to your mom she will die, and maybe you’re not alone when you remember facing her reaction.. because what you said was very difficult and tough and beautiful and bold and honest and true and good.

With so much love and hugs ❤️

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That’s very sweet and kind of you. Thank you.

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‘My mother’

So much rawness in there, thank you John

I’m glad you said that ‘yes’ though I’m sure it was hard and probably still is hard, and maybe always will be.

It’s something we nearly all go through, the death of a parent, or both parents. Perhaps that’s the way it should be, for isn’t it every parents worst fear, to bury a child?

Good to connect in here.

I don’t eat donuts 🍩 ☺️

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Thanks, Liz! Such kind words. I've stopped eating donuts too... well, for the most part. I do miss them though.

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This is so good, I wanna read more! I lost my mom to cancer too. Terrible experience...

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G+ wasn't the first social media site I joined. It might not even have been the first one I joined where I wasn't mostly interacting with people I already knew well in physical life. But it was the first one where I sort of clicked. Haven't really found a replacement yet.

Favourite flavour of doughnut is probably a fresh-made one filled with proper lemon curd.

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I'm not sure I've ever had a "proper lemon curd". I'd like to though. It sounds delicious.

The people who joined Google+ quickly found out that they didn't know anyone else using the platform. I think that caused a lot of people to abandon the site, but the ones who stuck around were able to find each other and form connections. I think that actually ended up becoming a benefit.

It's like the lack of an on-boarding process at the beginning. G+ was complicated and introducing a lot of new ideas people hadn't yet encountered. Circles and all of that stuff, but it had the effect of filtering out people who weren't willing to put in the work to understand the platform. That eliminated a lot of low effort type posts in the early days. The ones who were there used that space to write thoughtful and thought provoking posts that I haven't found anywhere else.

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