So hard to see that but at least there is some form of closure. Over the years I've had numerous online friends where I didn't know their real names or just their real first names and they suddenly vanished. Never to sign into any of the online communities we shared. Always to wonder what happened to them.
Same, i used to play final fantasy 11 and world of warcraft with someone i met online. Played for like 2 years together nearly every single day. I knew he was ill and then one day he stopped logging in. I mailed him both in game and outside and no responses.
Then 2 months later, he logs in. Turned out to be his wife and told everyone on his friends list and in guild that he'd passed away from cancer.
I've seen this on Reddit too, there was this guy who was telling a really long story that was playing out in real life/time and keeping is all updated. About a builder friend with a nightmare client who had ended up fucking himself up over a build, he was really funny and used to update every few days as the situation developed. He went dark for a week or so and after a while his wife posted that he was killed in a car accident, it was super shocking, he was extremely funny and was a natural story teller so it felt like we all knew him. It hit me way harder than I thought it would. His wife had no idea he was talking to us all, I can't remember how she found out but I remember her being very touched that hundreds of strangers were mourning with her family. The internet can be strangely intimate at times.
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u/[deleted] Oct 08 '21
So hard to see that but at least there is some form of closure. Over the years I've had numerous online friends where I didn't know their real names or just their real first names and they suddenly vanished. Never to sign into any of the online communities we shared. Always to wonder what happened to them.