[JudyKayTee]

You know she - and you - are in my prayers.

[Catsmine]

My wife saw this (and the look on my face) and wanted to add her sympathy and prayers as well.

[Alty]

You know she - and you - are in my prayers.

You're in mine too Judy. I know how much you care about Jo. This is hurting you too. It's hurting all of us.

Wish I could hug you in person. Hugging you via AMHD right now.

[JudyKayTee]

You're in mine too Judy. I know how much you care about Jo. This is hurting you too. It's hurting all of us.

Wish I could hug you in person. Hugging you via AMHD right now.

{{{ FELT AND RETURNED }}}

And all of you - stay healthy and safe. I can't lose anybody else, not for a long, long time.

And, yes, she was probably my first friend here and I am in pain, as we all are.

[Catsmine]

she was probably my first friend here and I am in pain, as we all are.

She gave me my first rep

[jrebel7]

As most of you know, I am not much of a joiner, yet Starby pulled me in, hook line and sinker and made me feel an integral part of this family. Thank you Starby! She likes to try to talk like me to Alty... soon, Alty we will visit on the phone and see how close Starby came to nailing it. LOL

My heart hurts for every one of you as we wait, and pray. Loving sometimes hurts really bad but Starby would tell us, it is worth all the hurt because when we love it also feels so good.

Love to you Starby and to each of you! I realize we do not all share the same faith beliefs but I just share this with you. Prayers are going up from so many people... sometimes God says YES, sometimes, He says NO and sometimes, He says WAIT but my faith says I am to tell God the desires of my heart and then pray that God's divine will be done. I want Starby back here 'giving us what for'. I am praying for that.

I sent out requests to friends and family for prayer for Starby, for the doctors, for her family and for friends, all of us, hurting for Starby. I have copied and pasted an e-mail I received back from one I requested prayer from. It blessed me and I hope it blesses you to read it. Most of all, I pray in Jesus Name, that it brings God's best to Starby. I am sharing part of the prayer:

Message:
Heavenly FATHER.. reach down and guide this lady. Reach down and touch this lady. They put her in a coma to help her... but YOU are the healer. Reach down and heal this person. Jo is loved.. other wise others wouldn't have been asked to pray for her. Help those that know and love her to continue to believe in YOU and in all YOU do!! Whether the answer is to our liking or not, we still believe in YOUR wisdom. JESUS CHRIST.. reach out to Jo and those around her... now and forever. Amen

Alty, thank you for posting for Starby! Love to each of you, my family... my friends!

[Alty]

Love to all of you.

It's amazing how much we all have become a family. We share our ups, our downs, our good times, our bad. Our laughter, our tears.

Starby means so much to us all. She never failed to make me laugh with her stories, her silliness, her joy.

We used to talk for hours a few times a week. She told me all about herself, but she failed to leave out the worst of it, her health.

She loves everyone so much. AMHD is a big part of her life. That one night that she got onto the computer for a while, well, you could hear how much she had missed us, how badly she wanted to be back.

It wasn't enough though.

We all love AMHD, heck, it's an addiction, I can't fight it. But we all have our lives, our day to day, our families. Starby didn't have that.

She has isolated herself from all her friends and family in the last year. She's become a hermit, never leaving her house. We are (damn, I keep writing in the past tense and correcting myself) her lifeline, her family.

I knew that. I knew she needed help getting her life back on track. I didn't know how bad it actually was. I didn't realize that it was so much worse then I thought. I don't think anyone did, even her family.

She is in all of our prayers, all of our hearts. Miracles happen everyday, right? Well, we need one, we truly do. I want to see the ducky come back here. I want to read her funny posts. I want to hear her voice. I want her back. We all do.

It's out of our hands. It's up to God, or whoever you believe in. It's up to Jo. It's not up to us.

Love to all of you. Hugs to all of you. We'll all get through this together. We all love her. Maybe love can pull her through.

[startover22]

Message:
Heavenly FATHER.. reach down and guide this lady. Reach down and touch this lady. They put her in a coma to help her... but YOU are the healer. Reach down and heal this person. Jo is loved.. other wise others wouldn't have been asked to pray for her. Help those that know and love her to continue to believe in YOU and in all YOU do!! Whether the answer is to our liking or not, we still believe in YOUR wisdom. JESUS CHRIST.. reach out to Jo and those around her... now and forever. Amen

Amen.

Hugs to all of you... Starby, I will be thinking of you as hard as I can think of anyone till this is over... you get better babe... love and lots of hugs to my Ducky... get better Starbs...

Alty... we are all lucky to have a friend like you... but Starbs is the luckiest to be closest to your heart... if you need to talk... you know what to do love.

[JoeCanada76]

Starby is in my prayers. Everybody is in my prayers. Starby for getting fixed all up. For the family to have strength at this time for Starby. It is good to know her family is by her side.

[J_9]

Thank you so much for the update. I will absolutely keep her in my prayers. She is a wonderful woman, and strong willed. I'm praying she will pull through.

[JudyKayTee]

I am not a religious person. I am a spiritual person. I believe no prayers go unanswered. Sometimes the answer is yes; other times it is no.

I had a terrible time sleeping last night - read this just before I went to bed - and I started thinking that maybe Jo needs to find peace and began to pray for whatever is best for her.

I am sad beyond words.

This thread is not about me and I don't mean to turn it in that direction but during that terrible time when my husband was dying, following his death, until this day the people on AMHD have held my head above water when I literally thought I was going to drown. Jo answered me in the wee hours of the morning when I was distraught, when I couldn't sleep, when I probably made little sense, when I truly didn't know how I was going to go on. For that matter, sometimes I didn't want to go on and she (because she was on line so much) was always kind and reassuring and suffered with me.

Oh, Jo -

[J_9]

It is unfortunate Jo is going through all of this. I don't mean to sound uncaring, but as a nurse, knowing what these people go through, it may be her time. The suffering is horrendous for both her and her family. Letting go, while easier said than done, may be the best thing that could happen.

There is no cure for a toxic liver, only torture. She most likely will not be a candidate for a transplant considering her past and the fight she put up for treatment.

Sometimes we know when it's time to give up the fight. Jo has been through so much in her life that there is a possibility she just wants peace. I dealt with this with my father.

I will keep her and her family, including her internet family in my thoughts and prayers. I pray that in one way or another she finds the healing that she so desperately needs.

[Alty]

Thanks to everyone who posted. To all the kind words.

Judy, I like that you shared a personal story about Starby. I think that's a great idea.

Instead of being sad, angry, hurt, let's remember all the good things.

Anyone have any favorite posts of our Starby? A favorite moment you shared? A story?

Starby and I formed a quick friendship. She posted on my "Truth about me" thread and said that she too was going through a hard time. I decided to go look at her thread.

It was about the court date for Nigel, the man that beat her to a pulp. She was afraid that he'd try again, she was afraid that justice wouldn't be served.

We talked a bit on her thread and realized that we're both in Alberta, albeit 5 hours apart, but still, the same province.

I PM'd her my email address, told her to write me if she ever just wanted to talk.

We emailed back and forth a bit and exchanged numbers. We've been talking ever since.

Our first conversation was 4 hours long. Thank God Starby had free long distance, I didn't have my magic jack then, not that it ever works anyway. ;)

We talked almost every day, for hours on end. We talked about fun stuff, sad stuff, everything and anything. My kids started calling her Auntie Jo.

We had made plans to meet in person this summer. I was trying to convince her to come camping with us as we would be going to Drumheller and it would only be an extra 2 hour drive to pick her up. She was thinking about it.

I invited her for Christmas (this past Christmas) but she kept making excuses why she couldn't come. Perhaps it was because she knew I'd see that something was wrong.

We've laughed together, we've cried together. The way this is ending does not define who she is. She has a good heart, a good soul, she's a good person. So let's celebrate that. Let's make the ducky smile.

[startover22]

I agree Alty... there are some here that we all adore and Starbs was one of those!
She always makes me smile... she isn't afraid to say what she wants and I like it...
HUGS Starbs... I wish I could lay right next to you and make you feel loved and special so we could work this out together. Lots n lots of hugs

[kp2171]

Love your way alty. Sorry this has been so hard on you. Sorry I've been absent for you. Pretty distracted at the moment.

Love to starby too... there's a lot of ways to measure a person, but one of the best, I think, is when you can answer "yes" to the question "am i in any way a better person for having known them?"

Not matter how "virtual" the relationships we have here at AMHD, id say "yes" to just about everyone... and starby's a shining star here.

And I agree with J_9... if this is where its at, I'm glad, at least, that they have her in a more peaceful state. Wish I could hold her hand.

[nikosmom]

Funny you said that Alty, my first phone conversation with her was about 3 hours. So yes, thank God she had free long distance. We talked about everything like we were old friends. We shared so much and seemed to have so much in common. Just felt... familiar and comfortable. We've since burned up many more hours of long distance calls. What a sweetheart!

She explained a lot to me about the Board, Canadians, her past, and life in general. Even though different ages, different lives... we'd been through similar things. We especially bonded over our mutual love for American Idol contestant Danny Gokey. :)

What really weirds me out was that we'd just chatted via email the day of her accident. I was actually out running errands and responding to her emails via my blackberry. So I was really shocked to hear all this had happened to her.

But she's going through a lot right now and the most I can do is pray. For comfort for her. Strength for her family. And Solace for everyone whose life she's touched. God hears me.

[Alty]

there's a lot of ways to measure a person, but one of the best, I think, is when you can answer "yes" to the question "am i in any way a better person for having known them?"

Love this KP! Love it. Yes to all of you.

She explained a lot to me about the Board, Canadians,

:eek: What did she say? :eek:

That actually reminds me of a story.

One night I get a call from Sneezy. He's upset. I ask what's wrong.

Sneezy: I just talked to Starby, she says there are no polar bears in Canada. Is that true?

Me: There are polar bears in some parts of Canada, but not in Alberta, well, unless you go to the zoo.

Sneezy: But you can't look outside your window and see polar bears?

Me: No, no polar bears in my yard.

Sneezy: What about penguins? She said there aren't any penguins either.

Me: There are penguins in West Edmonton Mall, but not wild ones. Sorry Sneezy, no penguins in Alberta.

Sneezy: But, but, you do live in igloos, right? You do know Eskimos, right? Tell me you do, please.

Me: Do you want me to lie to you?

Sneezy: Ahhhhhh! All my childhood dreams are crushed. Well, at least you have the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police). Is it neat to have police on horseback?

Me: Um, Sneezy, you may want to sit down for this. :rolleyes:

Afterwards I called Starby to tell her that we had completely destroyed Sneezy and his beliefs about Canada. Poor boy. Sure gave Starby and I a laugh though.

Next I'm going to tell him that we actually have summer here, it doesn't snow every day of the year. :p

[nikosmom]

I still don't know if I believe Canada has seasons...

[Alty]

I still don't know if I belive Canada has seasons...

It does, but it's usually all 4 in one day. ;)

Do you think I should tell Sneezy there's no Santa or is that pushing it? :D

[startover22]

Don't push it... I still believe!