Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Internet and g-mail

Yesterday a very interesting e-mail arrived in my g-mail box! It was from someone I've never met but whom I had contact with about twenty years ago! I briefly mentioned her name in a post earlier this year, as she was the inspiration for a Bible quilt that I've made many, many times since she shared her patterns and ideas with me.

Sandra lived in Japan with her Japanese husband and family (she's now in the States) and after I contacted her and she sent me her Bible quilt patterns and class outlines we exchanged New Year's/Christmas cards for a couple of years but then lost track of each other. So I was very surprised to find an e-mail in the inbox yesterday with her name on it! She wrote that her daughter had been googling family names on the Internet and had come across Sandra's name on my blog! I'm sure that was a surprise for them all!

I'm so thrilled that she wrote (and very happy I gave proper acknowledgement for the Bible quilt!) and to hear that her patterns had actually been made into a book sometime after she gave them to me. Thanks to Sandra many of my friends and family have this quilt somewhere in their cupboards (most of them date back before digital cameras though so I don't have pictures.) I designed the New Testament part from Sandra's patterns but actually she originally had a bed sized quilt make of blocks from the Old and New Testament. My friend Noriko made the full sized quilt. (I never got that far.) Isn't it a beauty?

The world of Internet is amazing where we can come across people we thought we'd never see or hear from again. Has anyone else ever had any surprises through the Internet?

6 comments:

CONNIE W said...

I've never tried Googling for someone's name but I may give it a try. I had a pen pal when I was in school and we lost touch when I got married and she moved on. Would be so fun to find her and reconnect.

Shelina said...

That certainly is exciting that you can meet up a long lost friend. That quilt pattern is wonderful - wow, look at that border!
I have googled my family names too - found out what many of my cousins are up to, and managed to email some of them, and am still exchanging emails with them. I do a lot of genealogy research online as well, so looking up family names is a norm for me. One day I will systematically google everyone.

Kieny said...

Last year I found back an old school friend on the internet. We went to elementary school together in Holland in the fifties and sixties. We now write each other regularly. She send me a picture of the two of us taken when we were about eight years old. Someone took the picture after we came back from the hairdresser. I don't remember anything of this and also didn't know this picture existed. It was quite a nice surprise from the past.

anne bebbington said...

I love the fact that you can reach out to people you used to know on the internet - DD1 keeps in touch so easily with friends from where we used to live using MSN Messenger - prior to the internet those friendships would've probably just faded away

andsewitis Holly said...

As a matter of fact - yes. Twenty years after my high school graduation I did an internet search for a classmate but didn't find her. At the same time, though, she was searching for me and somehow we "found" each other via the internet and continued our friendship after that 20 year gap. She had lived all over the world but has now settled down in Washington so I even get to see her every now and then. The world is a small place.

meggie said...

What a lovely post!
I joined Old Friends & it has a lot of people I went to school with, & some i have contacted.
The technology is wonderful, & I always imagine my Grandmother would have just loved it!