A Tweet Tale

 This is Lisa,

 

and this is Karl.

They met last year at TequilaCon. Yesterday I followed Karl on Twitter as he was on his way from Sebring, FL to see Lisa in Reading, PA. His first flight was cancelled, second delayed...needless to say he was not his cheery self. (I'm just guessing that he has a cheery self).

Karl:  I like how the guy always announces these delays and finishes with "thank you for your patience." He has no idea how close he is to death.

Karl: Sometimes the only thing that keeps me from kissing a sleeping woman on the mouth is the thought of 5-20 and a big man who calls me pretty.

Lisa waited patiently.

Lisa: @karlerikson I guess it's safe for me to take a nap.

Finally, Karl made his way through faltering flights and snow.

Karl: I am officially at Clusterfook's house. Snow on the ground. Snow in the air.

This is where the usual Twitter voy(eur)age would stop. Karl and Lisa would close the door and we would be left to draw our own delusions. Except that this relationship and  meeting is far from an ordinary tryst.

Lisa Kelly, @clusterfook, is going through her third bout with ovarian cancer and recently decided to halt all medical treatments. She is living at home with her husband and two daughters while under the care of Hospice. 

I happened upon her blog two Saturdays ago and wrote about her in my weekly yoga newsletter. I introduced myself to her through a comment on her blog and followed her on Twitter, determined to hear her, until the end.

On Monday she Tweeted:

Preparing for @karlerikson to arrive tomorrow and the snow is making me nervous.

Then I read that Karl sucks at death and is making his way to Lisa to act as her "Power of Blog" to help deal with Clusterfook when she dies. Karl is still at Lisa's, as far as I can tell, and it'll be interesting to see what decisions and solutions they come up with.

In the grand scheme of things Twittered, their running conversations may not appear to say much, but a life is seeking balance here, even as it passes away. Makes you wonder about all the other passing comments, doesn't it?

When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with its fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze. - Thomas Carlyle

Update, 2/28/09: Lisa Kelly, aka Clusterfook, died at 11:30pm on February 27, 2009. RIP Lisa Clusterfook.

 

Photos: Blog Talk Radio and The Rising Blog