My son just turned four years old last Thursday. He is beautiful and engaging and so smart. But this weekend I was reminded of what a sick world we live in. I was reminded that there are unscrupulous people out there who will do anything, and I do mean anything for a breath of attention from someone else.
When I first knew I was pregnant back in 2008, I joined the online community at Whattoexpect.com, commonly known as WTE. I found my homeboard for my due date, March 2009, and settled in to the daily questions of everything from "Am I having a miscarriage?" to "Is that a kick or gas?" Sadly, we did lose a few to miscarriages or arguments - we were a board of hormonal, pregnant women, there were arguments. But by the end of the forty weeks, we'd formed a fairly tight group.
I will never forget the day it happened. One of the ladies, one of my friends, had felt her stomach tighten, and with that, felt her baby boy moving less and less until she didnt feel him. She tried resting after drinking juice or really cold liquids but nothing worked. So she came in to see the doctor and found out that her baby had died. We were all shocked. When you get to the end, you feel like,"Ok, I've made it, I can breathe now." But as we sadly learned, that it was not the end. Tragedy can and does strike. In the United States, it occurs in 1 out of 115 births. The pain is unmeasurable and intense.
Our friend stayed in touch with us and shared the beautiful pictures that the hospital had arranged to take of her son. While I dont know if they're something I'd have done, I have to admit they're beautiful. You can see the sadness on the faces of family and the boy was so peaceful and beautiful. The pictures stab at a place in the heart so dark and deep, the place where you put things you dont want to talk about happening to you as if talking about it will jinx you. It is those pictures that are at the heart of my blog today.
My son just turned four, I just mentioned that earlier. The anniversary of her son's death was also last week. Imagine her pain, her horror at finding out that not one, but at least two women have used the picture of her son that she placed on Facebook to get attention for themselves. One woman used the picture to show other women in a Grief and Loss page on Facebook to get these women to give her love and support over the loss of her son. Another woman used that same picture to create an entire memorial web page for the loss of her son, pretending that our friend's son was hers.
What is wrong with people? Are their lives so empty that they must do this to get attention? Do they get a twinge of sick enjoyment out of hurting other people? Do they get off on the "oh you poor woman, how sad for you"? It just makes me angry. It makes me want to find them and slap them. Instead, I used the technical age to help my friend. She was afraid that with people posting on the website that the woman was a fraud that she'd shut down the site before the authorities could be alerted. So I saved both the website and the source code of the website for her. But my heart still hurts for her.
It used to be enough to tell people to be careful of what they posted online in case they didnt want it seen. Now you'll have to warn people not to post pictures that other people may steal as their own.
No comments:
Post a Comment