Jill.

Almost 13.5 years ago, in the middle of the night, while I was awake with a newborn, as I surfed the web, I stumbled across an internet group for moms. I lurked for a while, and then I joined the chatting.

Over the years, many of the group have met one another in person, for some grand weekends of laughter, food, and fun.

The group has become tight-knit. We protect one another. We help one another. We have shared everything from recipes to tears. We have supported one another through cross-country moves, divorce, marriage, a whole lotta pregnancies, the first grandchild, miscarriage, two sets of twins, autism, job loss, death of a parent, death of a husband, the unthinkable, unbearable deaths of two babies, one a child, one a grandchild. And we've supported one another through the "c" word. Cancer.

We experienced an awful first today. We lost one of us.

We lost Jill today. She was a great person. Smart. Funny. Gracious. Blunt. Down to earth. An incredible writer. She hated the pink campaign for breast cancer, the disease that she fought so couragously. (I always think of Jill when I see a pink anything.) She loved her husband, her precious son, her family. She fought hard. I did not have the privilege to meet her in person on this side of heaven. I'm privileged to have known her as a cyber-friend for many years.

Jill, we miss you.