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E-Friends

by Roger Riley
Jackson, Missouri, USA

E-Friends

About five years ago, I found a newsgroup on the Internet that was composed of owners of a particular brand of motorcycle. Since I rode the same brand I stuck around and made a few friends by e-mail. As the years went by, more and more people joined the discussion group and some dropped out, but a real core group of long time members gradually formed, with lots of others lurking around the edges.

Eventually, activities (rides, BBQs, meetings at bike rallys) were set up so people could meet their e-friends face to face. Real friendships were formed and the circle just keeps getting bigger.

A couple of years back one of the core members suddenly dropped off list. When someone finally called to check on him the story got out about his nasty divorce, and that he lost his job, computer, bike, even his clothes. Someone casually wrote in an e-mail message that we could probably take up a collection and get him started on the road to putting his life back together. The effort snowballed and just kept growing. We collected enough money to get him a computer, a used cycle, and enough computer parts to create several extra computers for a needy school in Texas.

Recently another of our group was involved in a bad accident hundreds of miles from home. He was stuck in a hospital, far from family and friends. Again the group started taking up a collection to help with his wife’s expenses at the hospital. Several people donated items to be auctioned off with all proceeds going to the expense fund. Several items were sold for many times more than their monetary value.

Some of these people are from Europe, Asia, Australia, and Canada, and will probably never meet the people they are helping. Lots of others are scattered around the USA and may or may not get to meet them. These people come from all levels of financial abilities and social levels. Each gave according to the level he could and some even went above that because someone they may have only known by e-mail needed their help.

These people will never be called heroes by the masses, but for a couple of families out there, “hero” is not enough for what they are and what they have done for a person they have never met.

Originally published as HeroicStories #60 on Sep 18, 1999
Available in The Best of HeroicStories, Volume 1.
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Filed Under: Uncategorized

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Note: HeroicStories aims to be a place of positive energy in what sometimes feels like an increasingly negative world. Our goal is to highlight good things done by good people that make the world a better place.

To that end your comments are not only welcome but encouraged. However, comments that simply find fault or otherwise complain about some aspect of a story will not be published. There's simply no need to find fault here - there are plenty of places on the internet for those discussions if you really feel the need to go negative.

Instead, look for the good. It really is everywhere.

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Comments

  1. Andrea N Lane says

    March 22, 2021 at 3:27 pm

    How do I access the archives?

    Reply
    • Leo says

      March 22, 2021 at 3:43 pm

      Huh. The archive links appear not to be working. I’ll try to get that fixed soon.

      Reply

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