Usually, I would
see her stuff pop up on Facebook and I’d always look in on it and give it a
like. But I’d had my own fish to fry in the early part of the year and I hadn’t
really been doing well with keeping in touch with anyone at all. It got as far
as last week before it occurred to me that I hadn’t seen Emily post or update or
share anything in a long while.
So I checked
in, somewhat apprehensively I have to say.
The last update
Emily had posted was dated 11th May 2026. It simply said, “I’m entering
hospice.” In increasing dismay, I looked a little further. It
didn’t take long to find confirmation of what I had feared I might find.
Emily Ann
Suess, 46, of Edwardsville, IL, died on May 14, 2026. She was born on March 4th,
1980, in Princeton, Indiana. She was a loving daughter, sister, and friend. She
will truly be missed by all who knew and loved her.
I was very sad to
learn that Emily has passed away. I have never met her. I have never even spoken
to her. But she blogged. And I blogged. And, of course, many others blogged too,
but there was one small difference, perhaps, between myself and Emily and most of
the other bloggers we ran into along the way.
We never stopped.
I started
blogging in or around 2007, with the current blog first taking shape in January
of 2008. There were a lot of bloggers back then and there were various ways in
which they interacted and socialised a little online. One such endeavour was
called Entrecard. No longer in existence, this was a rather quaint blogger
network where users ‘dropped cards’ on each other’s blogs when they visited and
thus earned points which allowed them to advertise their wares on other people’s
blogs. Lots of people were there. Jim Murdoch - who has generously commented on practically
every blog I’ve ever writen – was there. Celtophilia Mike was there. Acadia
Einstein was there... lots of people were there.
At that time, Emily
was in University. She was building a career and a life and her blog reflected it
all with humour, determination, and great writing style. Then, in or around 2014,
she started to have health issues which, at the time, I believe were misunderstood
to be related to fibromyalgia.
In 2017, she
was diagnosed with a very, very serious illness. Ever since then,
she has used her social media muscle to champion her treatment, her mental
health, her creativity, her refusal to ever quit, and her unbelievable strength
and humanity. Her recording of her health journey is perhaps one of the most
detailed and unflinching accounts of what our friends and family may go through
when illness comes to call and refuses to ever leave again. Her telling of her
story was personal and involving but never indulgent and never-ever relenting.
Emily may have
left this world but her spirit will live on among the vapour trails of the Internet
world where she told her story with grace and truth. Blogging platforms may
fall and websites may become defunct but somewhere in the digital history of
the world her words and her thoughts will remain imprinted, brilliantly set down, and they will remain, somewhere, forever.
Emily was many things to many people. Of that I have no doubt. To me, she was a Writer, through-and-through. A Brave Writer. And she never stopped. Even when the driver was at her door, ready to take her on the final part of her journey. She still turned one final time to her keyboard, her computer, and she wrote one final update.
I will check in
on your posts now and again, Emily, and remind myself how amazingly well you
set it all down. I send my kindest regards to all your family and friends, and I offer
my sincerest condolences to them.
But I won’t be
trying to send this post to any of them personally in any way. Instead, I will just do what
I feel is most appropriate for Emily. I will post this on to my blog and let it
go where it will and be seen by whoever may come upon it.
I mean, isn’t
that what we bloggers do? We launch our virtual messages-in-a bottle, onto the
ocean of the Internet, never knowing which way they may travel or upon which
shore they may land.
And we hope for
the best.
For Emily Suess 1980 – 2026
1 comment:
A lovely tribute beautifully written, Ken x
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