I've been here from the beginning - I think my first post was on the 5th May, 2011. I had never even thought of joining an online community before, but I saw mention of Gransnet's launch in an online newspaper. It came at a time when I was dealing with the responsibility of supporting my daughter who had been widowed for a year, and my one year old grandson. I found a fiesty, humorous, supportive bunch of women with views on all sorts of topics. Some were acerbic, others full of warmth, many were knowledgeable about a wide range of subjects and some were full of common sense. One or two were (are) a fair mix of all the above!!!
I remember the Christmas conference call when I was very excited to hear bags talking. I flew, with another lovely gransnetter, up to Edinburgh for one of the early meet-ups and was wonderfully hosted by marmight, who had a different name then and had been fairly recently widowed. It was a joy to meet so many of the women I'd come to 'know' online.
I remember the worry we all felt when Greatnan went missing in the Alps and then the deep sadness when her body was found. There weren't so many of us posting then and it felt like a real blow to our community.
All my family know my Gransnet name and my presence on the site is often cause for a bit of good-natured banter, especially with my sons. Last year I became stressed when a gransnetter almost intruded into my real life at a very difficult time and some family members urged me to leave the site, but I took a short break instead.
I find it harder to keep up with people now because I have a very poor memory for 'who said what' and I can't remember so many names. I'm really glad that there are so many people joining now though because I think gransnet is a great 'virtual' community and deserves to grow and thrive.