My best friend -- my Mom -- invited me to Gmail in January 2005. We lived less than an hour away from each other, but she had chronic pulmonary disease and so we couldn't get together as much as we would like, and she often had trouble talking on the phone. But we would Gmail each other every day, anywhere from 2 to 20 times. My husband joked that I should just get a video camera on the computer, because I would share every trivial detail of my day with her, and vice versa. She also enjoyed pointing out the funny ads that Gmail would provide for her. I never noticed them unless she pointed them out to me! Sometimes we would talk about bizarre topics just to see what ads would come up. My mom passed away in April of this year. I miss her terribly, but now I use Gmail to keep in touch with my Dad -- 2 to 20 times a day! I love Gmail because I can go back and read my conversations with my mom, and it makes me smile to relive all those days. I also use the search feature to find things like recipes she shared with me, etc. I've had two other free email accounts, and with both accounts I have lost all my past messages at some point. With Gmail I can have these conversations with my mom to re-read for a long time to come.
Karen
West Virginia
Labels: keeping in touch