My mother, Esther Paredes-Hernandez (1930-2018)
A little over a year ago, around the passing of my mother, I stopped posting on Twitter. I told myself that I couldn’t bear the cacophony of messages and nasty attacks I kept seeing in connection with the situation in Venezuela and the US. In reality, I needed to grieve, and grieve I did…
I continued to love my work at Livongo, I caught up with friends (in fact, I was able to attend an ADA Scientific Sessions that wasn’t all stress, crowned by an amazing midnight chat with Diatribe’s Adam Brown), but my presence in Social Media was limited to LinkedIn, the mandatory Lucas photos on Instagram, and the occasional check-in on Facebook once every month or two.
I went one step further: in August 2018, I attempted to deactivate my Twitter account, and it didn’t work. It really didn’t make me lose sleep, but today I am kind of glad, because earlier this month, as the Venezuelan crisis started heating up again a month ago, I couldn’t find fresh enough news on any mainstream media, and found myself looking at Twitter for updates. And as quickly as that… I came back to Twitter, Jan. 27. But who am I fooling? I never really left: I just needed to grieve, and grieve I did…
Coming out of Twitter retirement for now, as this is one of the best places to be in the know about the latest events in #Venezuela.
Saliendo de mi retiro de Twitter por ahora, ya que es uno de los mejores sitios para seguir los eventos en #Venezuela
— Manny Hernandez (@askmanny) January 27, 2019
And, along with being back on Twitter, I find myself blogging again, which I hadn’t done since September 2017… inspired by my #DOC friend and remote worker extraordinaire, Scott Hanselman. It is my goal to post here a few times per month. I am working on the next post on how the subconscious can play you some wild tricks, including having you buy plane tickets for the wrong destination.
And of course we will be reading Manny !!! Hang tough guy, you rock!!!
Welcome back, Manny.
Grief never just vanishes (in my case at least), but you come to a point where you’re ready to be more outward-facing again.
Sending #DOC love,
Amy
Thanks, Rick!
From one muser to another, glad to read your words again.
Glad to see you back!
Sometimes, a sabbatical is in order, and you had a very good reason to do it. But as you note, sometimes its necessary to return for reasons we don’t always anticipate. Still, its nice to welcome you back!
Thanks, Scott. I have a series of posts related to Alzheimer’s planned. Thanks for being a driving force, bud.