One of the joys of twitter is getting to meet so many kind, interesting, and varied people from places all over the world and getting to share, at least a little, in their lives.  One of my favorite of these people was Ann Gregory, who passed away on November 26 from cancer-related complications.  Ann was one of my earliest twitter followers, and therefore one of my oldest twitter friends.

I can’t say that I knew Ann particularly well, as our interactions were unfortunately limited to twitter.  She was already a cancer survivor when I met her, but she was always unfailingly kind and fun to talk to, and chatting with her always cheered me up no matter what the situation.  We shared a love of cats, and would share photos of our cute kitties now and again.

Her cancer came back suddenly and unexpectedly, and it was a shock to me how quickly it took her life.  My thoughts and sympathies go out to her husband Chris and her family and friends.  Ann kept a long-running blog describing her life and illness, and her husband wrote a very touching post after her passing, both in memory of her and as a message to those still coping with their own difficult cancer diagnoses.  To just borrow one paragraph from it,

When Ann was diagnosed all those many years ago at 32, she would say to me, “I just want to live to my 40th birthday”.  Well, we did and could we have done anything better?  Sure.  But we didn’t live life like it was going to end on a schedule.  We lived it like everyone else does – one day at a time focused on what you need to to stay ‘normal’ when you have been touched by cancer.

The internet, and the world in general, feels somewhat empty to me with her gone.  She was a nice friend and I will miss her and remember her.

Rest in peace, Ann.

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Ann’s obituary can be read at The Advocate.  As noted there, donations in her memory can be made to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.