My sweetie, The Scoot (as he is generally known on my blog), has a gramma, and she hasn’t been doing well. She was diagnosed with cancer and moved into his mom’s house earlier this year. Of late her condition has been declining, and she was in the hospital for awhile and now is in what the brochure describes as an end-of-life facility in Beaverton. Yesterday afternoon about 2pm I got a call that NOW is not the end, but you can probably see it from here. So I hopped in the car and hauled off to Beaverton. It was looking like I’d need to head back home before anyone else did, so to find out the best time to go, I asked Twitter and was told don’t bother till at least 6:30 or even 7. So I figured I was there for the evening and told Twitter that too. Here’s what happened*:

@kmcdade said “Oh, man. I’m so sorry.”
@ahockley said “I know it’s been hard lately. Sending positive thoughts towards you and your family.”
@drnormal said “Our thoughts are with you. <<hugs>>”
@turoczy said “Hang in there. Thinking of you.
@DeborahBeatty said “my thoughts are with you both.”
@mlpayne said “It is tough to watch a grandparent near the end. Praying for you guys!”
@chavtasticjinx said “*hug* to both of you”
@richburroughs said “:( Sorry Kelly, take care.”
@linuxaid said “hope all goes as well as it can tonight.”
@MeaganKate said “Sending good thoughts!”
@lawduck said “RT @MeaganKate: @verso Sending good thoughts! +1 – Big hugs.”
@chickieleighc said “You guys are in my heart tonight!”
@morganpdx said “<hugs>.  And then again.”
@jimdittmer said “I believe we’re all with you now…”
@kidmanproject said “Oh, Kelly, I’m so sorry to hear that. My best wishes to you all.”
@gwalter said “I’m sorry to hear about @pdxscott’s gramma. They are so precious to us.”
@dougcoleman said “@colemangirl & I send our *big hugs* and *positive vibes* your way.”
@yuetsu said “I’ve been through this with my mom, my dad & close friends. never easy. but good you’re there for her.
@Locket2You said “I’ll be thinking of you and your family tonight….”
@aaronjorbin said “I hope everything works out for the best #fingerscrossedforyou”
@QueenOChaos said “just read through; sorry to see whats happening. will keep you guys in my prayers.”
@KatrinaWheeler said “sorry to hear. Losing grandparents is really hard.”
@kathymcc said “I am so sorry.”
@ama23 said “So sorry to you all Kelly. Thoughts with you.”
@DixwellStillman said “Dixwell Stillman hopes @verso is doing OK. Best wishes to you and @pdxscott.”

These people listed above include: A County Commissioner’s wife, a jewelry designer, a contributor to ReadWriteWeb, former coworkers, friends, and a whole stack of people whom I have never even met. But because I have followed them on Twitter and interacted with them on Twitter, I got messages of support and love. And some of those people are in England, the eastern US, and I even got a hug sent via text from a friend in Sydney Australia, so I got love from all over the world. 140 characters at a time.

I know some people would find this weird, and I know some people already do think it’s odd or crazy or whatever. But last night when I was sitting in a room with a dying woman and a bunch of in-laws and waiting, I reached out to my own community and got back an astonishing amount of love and care. I just read a blog post written by another of my Twitter friends, and to put it in those terms: Last night Twitter was my baking soda. And it didn’t take any of those people very long at all to send me those little notes, but since they were thinking of me for just those couple of minutes, I was very touched. Even recounting it now, I’m going to need you to look over there for a minute. I have something in my eye.

* This is an exercise in concentration on something good that happened in the midst of an awful lot of bad and sad. I am only doing this to help cheer myself up. Thank you for reading all the way to the little tiny text at the end.

First and foremost, in my last post it was mentioned that CubeSpace, a Portland hub of community, will be closing at the end of this week. Since they will be no more, we need to do something not to lose them. What is it? I have a few ideas, and I will edit and update this post as needed. Reminder: This is not a place for talking about what could have been done differently or for passing messages on to CubeSpace. We are only looking to move forward and not lose the amazing community that CubeSpace was an integral part of building.

From: CubeSpace
Subject: It’s End of CubeSpace as We Know It….

Friends,

It is with deep sadness that Eva and I announce that CubeSpace will be closing its doors on Friday, June 12, 2009. During the past two weeks of negotiations, we have very much appreciated the support from all of you. Yet when it came down to it, we realized that even though business has been up and the outpouring of support from the community has been so great, we do not have the resources to keep CubeSpace open.

For roughly three years, Eva and I have poured ourselves into CubeSpace. We have poured in all of our financial resources, and have never taken any salary. We have poured the vast majority of our energy into CubeSpace. We have poured most of our attention into CubeSpace. Now, we have no more to put in. We are tired and broke, and it is now time for us to move on.

We do not consider CubeSpace a failure. Rather, we succeeded in fostering a meaningful community that supports each other in hard times and celebrates together in good times. We feel privileged to have been a part of this community, and look forward to participating in other ways in the years to come.

Many of you have asked what you can do to help. Eva and I have been unable to answer, until now. What we need now are jobs. We have mountains of debt, no assets, and are facing the possibility of personal bankruptcy.

Another piece of help is not for us, but for the community. We know that the closing of CubeSpace will have a negative impact on the community. CubeSpace has served as a central meeting place. It has served as a clubhouse. It has been a default place to hold community events. We now need others in the community to step up and offer up meeting places. Eva and I will continue to contribute our time and energy to community events, but we will no longer be able to contribute the space. It may take some creative thinking, but I believe that as a community we will survive and continue to join together at events if other members of the corporate community will step up to offer space to host the many events CubeSpace has been hosting.

Finally, please be aware that Eva and I need your emotional support as we go through this tough period. As I said in the beginning, we are very tired, emotionally drained and sad. Please do not tell us what we might have done better. Trust us, we know far too well all the mistakes we’ve made. Now is not when we want to rehash them. We welcome your support, your friendship and your caring. We would love suggestions for our future. But right now, we aren’t in a good position to be second-guessing past decisions.

Thank you all so much for being a part of our lives these past years,

David and Eva

–
CubeSpace
622 SE Grand Ave.
Portland, OR 97214
info@CubeSpacePDX.com
www.CubeSpacePDX.com
503-206-3500 – voice
503-206-3302 – fax