Monday, August 24, 2009

KMF Takes On The Real World: The Life and Death of Kristen Forbes

KMF Takes On The Real World: The Life and Death of Kristen Forbes

I wish I could hang on to the basics of how this blogging business works. I just don't get it. Maybe AARP can help me. You see, I am AARP, in a sense. Probably a bit too liberal for most AARPies. But I share the same learning curve when it comes to 21st Century phenomena like blogging.

My intent, here, is to share with Kristen Forbes, part-time writer, how much I enjoyed her blog (http://www.krissymick.blogspot.com/) which I was tempted to log onto from an article she wrote for the Beaverton Valley Times. Browsing through her blog entries, I came across her discovery that there were at least six other women with whom she shared the same name. At least, that was her finding via facebook, the social web site of gigantic size.

What she found on facebook that took me a step further into her world was that one of the Kristen Forbes had died of cervical cancer at the age of 23. Her thoughts on the shared-namesake, whom she never knew, were moving. The girl's father, Kirk Forbes, finished her journal as a book which is now available: Love, Kristen.

I haven't read Love, Kristen and I doubt if I will. Just knowing "the ending" would make her journey too much for me to handle, emotionally. However, I think I will buy it for my two daughters: one, the mother of my 13-year old grandaughter, and the other fighting her own battles with a form of lupus at just three years older than Kristen Forbes, the cancer victim.

So, thank you, Kristen Forbes, young aspiring writer in Oregon, who writes about everything, mostly herself, she admits, and always about cupcakes. I didn't get that far so you'll have to explore that for yourselves.

Now, I'll post this, I believe. An orange button below says "publish post" but all I started out to do, so I thought, was to respond or post to Kristen Forbes' blog, somewhere in Beaverton, which is where I work. God help all AARPies. Even those who aren't members, like my wife and me.