Yes Jenny-O, and I was among the people who offered you advice and support. I never, however, offered you prayers or hugs or played therapist to you.

Thanks for answering my question about how many of these sorts of threads there have been lately. I appreciate getting the feedback, and would welcome it from more than one person (which is why I asked!)

As I said earlier in this thread, I was uncomfortable with the way I felt many people here harangued Rick Fielding in his last 6-9 months to "share" his illness with them. I felt a lot of it was rooted in prurient interest. A sort of gawking at the car wreck sort of thing.

Now, I never met Rick or corresponded with him privately, so I have no way of knowing what his feelings were about the way people kept 200+ post threads going ABOUT him and his terminal illness, with very few contributions FROM him about his health status. In fact, I don't recall him ever divulging much about his actual health status. I just am remembering it as him never asking for people to pray for him, etc I do remember him giving the occassional update to be polite. I hate the feeling of being coerced into being polite to people, out of a sense of etiquette and decorum because they are being nice to me when I am suffering. I read Rick's posts sometimes (though certainly not all of them) and to me they read as appreciation for peoples' concern. But the posts of his I read also seemed to be evidence of the possibility that Rick preferred to keep it private, and out of the forum.

Some people wish to keep such matters private and separate from their online activities. Some people wish to discuss them online, and the more people involved, the better.

I just wish, considering that there IS an alternative, that those who want to engage in the prayer/hug/therapy threads, would respect people like me and my wishes. All it would take is posting the info to a thread where someone starts a prayer/hug/therapy request, about the Mudcat annex, or a PM to them if they are members.

Is that too much to ask of one another, really?