Corresponding with these friends became an important part of my daily routine, and I spent more time talking to them than I did talking to my neighbors. I had a friend in France and could name each of her cats, but didn't know my neighbor's first name. We exchanged holiday cards with people we had never met in person, and our neighbor refused to unchain her door when we dropped off homemade Christmas cookies.
Were the cookies that bad, or was it simply that our geographical neighbors had less in common with us than people who lived 3,000 miles away?
A Diagnosis, And A Community Responds
In mid-2000, Becky was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, often disabling disease of the central nervous system. Symptoms may be mild, such as numbness in the limbs, or severe - paralysis or loss of vision.
Becky was 24 years old. I'm not saying there's a great age to be diagnosed with such a disease, but allowed to choose, I think most people would choose later in life. Much later.
We struggled to come to terms with this throughout 2000. When 2001 hit, we made up our minds we were going to take a pro-active stance. Becky wasn't going to sit around and see what happened, she was going to fight back the only way we really knew how - she created an MS Walk team. Together, with a few of our friends and family, we formed a small team and set about raising funds.
Most of the friends I had were already signed up on our team, so I turned to my co-workers for donations. That earned me a whopping $20. This was better than nothing, of course, but if I was going to hit my goal of $100, I would need more help.
I talked about it with Becky, and with her blessing, I posted a story on my website about what we were going through. Then, I fired off a quick email to the Asheron's Call fansites, letting them know I had updated with an important story. Saying a loud prayer, I went to bed that night, hoping it would be well received in the gaming community. After all, here I was - a notorious goofball - suddenly turning to them with this serious and sad story.
I tossed fitfully that night, wondering if I had just opened our personal lives up to mockery of outrageous proportions. I dreamt of hitting not only my goal of $100, but maybe even - gasp - $200!
The next morning, I checked my pledges. I was already over $3,000 - including a $1,000 pledge. To say I was shocked is a bit of an understatement. Letters poured in - people who had a family member suffering from MS, or knew a friend with MS, or just had similar experiences with another debilitating disease. When we attended player gatherings, people would come up to us to offer their support, share stories with us, ask us questions about our experiences. They would get involved with us. The next year, I began playing Dark Age of Camelot, and when I posted another request for pledges, they answered just as loudly as the AC community.
