Remembering Candygirl

REMEMBERING A BLOGGING FRIEND. Emma Thérèse Candy (in one of her photos at left) died of cancer on Thursday 5th February, 2004 aged 36 years in London Bridge Hospital. She faced her ordeal with great courage and dignity as her blog often showed. I could count on several late-night visits a week from Emma, a woman I never saw. She visited in early mornings London time. At first, I thought it was strange to see someone clicking into my Typepad blog between 3AM-4AM many mornings. I traced backwards and realised Em had found my blog on the "recently updated" list following one of my 1AM posts. Then she linked to my blog and occasionally visited. I never wrote to her or spoke to her, but my referrer logs told me that she read my stuff several times a week. Em died of cancer about a year after my dad died of the same disease. Emma was 38 years younger than my father, which makes her passing all the more tragic. She wrote of her suffering in terms I never heard my father explain. By reading Em's blog posts, I often felt closer to my dad.

Friends Meroë, Colin, Linda, Ernest and Rob wrote a lovely testimonial to Emma.

"Just to let everyone know that Emma died peacefully early on the morning of February 5th 2004 with her family there. This picture was taken last Thursday as we walked down by the Thames at London Bridge following a bout of shoe window shopping...She was tempted by some furry boots but felt they were a little extravagant. Candygirl was a tough cookie till the end...telling us off for being upset and ordering the nurses around."

Emma used her blog to stay in touch. "May I Be Frank" (the name of her blog) was one the things that made her happy over the last few months. Knowing her remotely has been a major motivation in keeping my own personal weblog frequently updated. Seeing Six Apart keep her original blog up and running is a perpetual reminder to me that cancer is an evil thing, and all the more vicious when it takes out someone who brings joy to the lives of others.

Candygirl is blogging in heaven. Her photo IDs continue to pulsate across the net.

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Originally -- "Goodbye, Candygirl" 6 February 2004.

The Guardian G2 -- "Emma Candy's Diary", 16 February 2004.

A big thank-you to Mena Trott for granting Emma's blog a perpetual right of existence.

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