For Carlos

The internet arrived in our house when I was in my early teens.    It was a lot simpler then.    Facebook, twitter, myspace, bebo, faceparty (is that still going?) didn't exist.     It was all fields back then as my grandmother might have said :)

As a young, non cynical, optimistic thing I set about trying to make friends in foreign lands.  Something perhaps my parents would discourage me to do now given the potential dangers out there.    Anyway, as a young spanish learner I wanted to talk to people who could help me practice.   In addition as a teenage girl, I picked boys...yep a strumpet in the making maybe!

I talked to many randoms via the wonders of yahoo messenger, most of which are long forgotten.    A few still linger in my memory.   An angry greek who ranted at me about european politics,  Jesus from Mexico city who mostly told me he loved me and sent me animated e-cards, his english was as good as my spanish so that soon fizzled out!   An american guy called Crash (I'm not sure that was his real name, if it was his parents were cruel) and Carlos also from Mexico.

Carlos was an average kind of guy,  I don't really have a lot of memory as to what we talked about.  Probably the sort of nonsense you chat when you are 15, music, school and friends I guess.

As with most long distance friendships they disappeared as the years went on.   A few years ago however Carlos appeared again, via the wonders of facebook.    It would appear we both still had the same old email addresses and therefore facebook matched our contact details so we were able to re-connect.

Still being a Spanish learner (sadly not much improved!) I enjoyed reading Carlos' long status updates and now and then we would comment, and share birthday wishes etc as you do.    Both Carlos and I  daughters this year.   It was lovely to hear about his family.

In mid December unfortunately however my friend Carlos, who was 38 years old passed away.   I never met him but when I read the news I was and still am deeply saddened, though we were only friends via a small screen he had an impact on my life, in some ways more than people that I have actually met which feels a little bizarre.

The internet can be full of the wrong sort.  Letting your teenage loose online can be like giving a box of knives to a toddler.   Viruses and criminals lurk in every corner.  Just sometimes though it brings people together who ordinarily would have passed each other in the street without a second thought.

I will never forget you Carlos.  Thank you for being my friend.  I will miss you.