The email you don't want to open
By GreenMoo
@GreenMoo (11833)
April 7, 2013 1:44am CST
When I opened my emails this morning there was one from a stranger, with the subject line being the name of an elderly friend. My heart dropped as it's the email I've been hoping would be delayed as long as possible.
My friend has died and the email was from her daughter who had found my contact details in her mother's address book.
I'm very pleased that the daughter took the time to get in touch. My friend had been becoming frailer over the last eighteen months and every time there was a longer than average gap in communications I worried that the worst had happened.
We mainly wrote or emailed each other, and had been for around 15 years. I'm struggling to remember how long exactly. We met initially on the net on a cat forum and our communications went from there. I took my eldest son to see her once, and he was just a baby. She's followed the story of my life for many years and I'll miss her.
Have you had an email you didn't want to open? Do you have a penfriend? Are your affairs organised to the extent that your family could contact all your friends should something happen to you unexpectedly?
5 people like this
10 responses
@dagami (1158)
• Rome, Italy
7 Apr 13
your friend was very organized, i usually don't bother to write emails and phone numbers. the data is there on my mobile and computer and my son and husband do not know the passwords.
it was sweet of her daughter to inform you. some won't bother at all. even if they see an address book, if they do not personally know the person, they won't take time to do this.
i don't have friends on the net that i don't personally know. sometimes i wonder if i could become friends with some people here in mylot. i have noticed that i can identify with some of them.
condolence on your loss. maybe you can continue exchanging emails with her daughter. think of her as a very distant niece.
2 people like this
@jenny1015 (13359)
• Philippines
7 Apr 13
I have only been actively online for the past 3 years. And the usual people that I get to talk to before were my former schoolmates who happens to be really close to me.
I have met some people online whom I would get to send emails every once in a while, but I don't think that the friendship that I have with them is anywhere close to the kind of friendship you had with your friend.
I am trulu sorry for the sudden demise of your friend. May she rest in peace.
2 people like this
@GreenMoo (11833)
•
8 Apr 13
She was an elderly lady, so I was not surprised by the news. It happens to us all eventually after all. I am very sad though. I will miss our conversations. Recently I had been writing to her via the mail rather than the computer so she could read my letters without powering up.
1 person likes this
@bounce58 (17380)
• Canada
12 Apr 13
Are your affairs organised to the extent that your family could contact all your friends should something happen to you unexpectedly?
This is one level of foresight that I haven't even thought of! To be honest, I don't even have a will prepared yet. I've been procrastinating, and I know that I should get on with it.
Aside from junk, and virus-laden messages, I am fortunate enough to have not encountered an email I don't want to open. Yet!
@inertia4 (27978)
• United States
14 Apr 13
I have not gotten an email like that in my life. But I can imagine how unpleasant it has to be to open it and read it. I have gotten calls from family and friends through the years about someone passing. But never an email.
@changjiangzhibin89 (17243)
• China
8 Apr 13
It is rare to know some people who emailed each other for around 15 years after knowing each other on a forum online.At least,as you talked online,you warmed to each other.Maybe contacting you was your friend's dying words.
1 person likes this
@changjiangzhibin89 (17243)
• China
9 Apr 13
You two were really good friends in spite of great difference in age.
1 person likes this
@emily7339 (1337)
• Malaysia
7 Apr 13
I am sorry to hear that your friend has passed away. It is good of her daughter to use her mother's email contact to inform you. This is so sweet of her 
. It is so precious to have such long friendship over the net 
.
My daughter is the only person could access to my email aacount. I have not experienced this scenario over the email pertaining to friends' passing so far. However, I had received one from own elder brother who is residing in Australia. I was shocked and sad to learn from him that his wife passed away due to illness at her early fifties.
. It is so precious to have such long friendship over the net .
My daughter is the only person could access to my email aacount. I have not experienced this scenario over the email pertaining to friends' passing so far. However, I had received one from own elder brother who is residing in Australia. I was shocked and sad to learn from him that his wife passed away due to illness at her early fifties.2 people like this
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
7 Apr 13
I haven't gotten an e-mail like that. Though I've gotten a letter similar of a pen-pal my mother had written to and I had taken over that the woman had been put in a nursing home after a bad fall and that was the last I had heard. Looked up on SSDI when it was still up to see she had passed away. :(
@rocketking (189)
• Singapore
8 Apr 13
It is really thoughtful of your friend's daughter to search for her mother's contacts and inform all her friends. So sorry to hear of the loss. The emails I don't want to see are trivial in comparison, mainly from colleagues or customers making troublesome requests so I am lucky. Sooner or later will reach a stage in life when I receive such news however. Nowadays I think should it be necessary all your family needs to do is your Facebook account and password to make the announcement to your friends.
1 person likes this
