It seems like I've known Charlotte forever, but I met her here in early 2009. It was one of the luckiest chance encounters of my life. Of course, I didn't realize it at the time, but I think our first interaction was in her diary, Being Deaf. For some reason, we just hit it off. We lost track of each other for awhile in the spring of that year, but once we reconnected, we've kept up our correspondence.
Charlotte has lived through so many of the things that the rest of us have studied in school. Her most recent series on elections of her lifetime begins here with Warren G. Harding... Quadrennial Madness: Elections I Have Known. She gives us a unique view into not just history, but into what real people actually thought about the candidates at the time. Part II Part III
Her travel series' are too numerous to link here. No matter what area of the world suits your fancy, chances are Charlotte has seen it and written about it in her own wonderful style. I'll leave it to you to scroll through her marvelous travelogues. If I had to choose a favorite, I think it would be her first, Threescore and Ten Years ago (Part I here) or maybe the second, Once Upon a Freighter: The Cruise of the Corneville (Part I here) Aw heck! Go read them all! :-)
That is Charlotte, the now 98-year-old blogger. Charlotte, the friend, is a pearl beyond great price. I am the age of her children. She rarely pulls the “mom” thing on me, unless I whine about being old. Mostly, we share news, weather, links, and chit chat in our daily emails. She also reads my not-infrequent rants about some injustice or silliness I've seen or experienced. I can feel her through the ether, patting my hand in sympathy or giving me a shove to action.
I try to be a distance teacher on things technical. She relies on the computer for a lot of her communication because of her deafness. Her eyes aren't that great, either, so we've tried to use some of the Windows accommodations to help her see the cursor, etc. Although she swears she's too old to learn new things on this infernal machine, she isn't afraid to try.
There is almost no chance that we will ever meet in person, but I consider myself the luckiest woman on earth to call her my friend.
Update 1: See this diary for another greeting and perspective.
Update 2, yetanother tribute to a great lady!