Yesterday, Kevin posted the news he received from Nurse Jenny about our own Joe Comer (herkybirdman). I spent the rest of my evening thinking about Joe, and emailing friends asking them to pray for him and his family. I also posted about him on my personal blog, so that the 2-3 readers I have there can also be praying for him.

I’d like to share those thoughts with you, because Joe and Jenny are still on my mind and heart, and talking is one of my ways of dealing with my emotions.

**************
Joe Comer is a retired AF member, vietnam vet, and devout Christian. He’s also a ham radio operator, and spent a few weeks in MS last summer helping with the aftermath of Katrina. He loves to fly (has his own small plane), and loves to share his thoughts on the internet. That’s how I met him. He was a regular contributor to a milblog I’m part of, The Daily Brief . He also had his own blog at http://patriotflyer.blogspot.com/

It was thanks to a post on TDB that I learned of his current precarious status. My friend Joe had a massive stroke, and is in hospice care. My immediate response was tears, and a prayer for his family.

For all that he’s a crusty old country boy, Joe has a heart of gold, and one of the sweetest emails I’ve ever gotten in my life was from him last spring/summer, where he told me that he and his wife (Nurse Jenny, as he calls her online) considered me to be another daughter, even though we’d never met.

When I was driving back from FL last sept, we intended to meet, but he was enroute to Atlanta to buy more ham radio equipment the day I passed within 20 miles of his home, and we just never connected.

And now he’s in hospice, which means he’s just waiting to hear those magic words: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” and I find that everytime I think about it, I’m crying for the loss of a man I’ve never met, that I’ve only known as words on a computer screen, but who somehow was able to send compassion and caring across the void we call cyberspace, and touch another person’s heart.

Godspeed, Joe. Vaya con Dios.

Please link your heart with mine, and say a prayer for Joe and his family, and his cyberfriends. Thanks.

*****

My heart hurts, and my eyes keep leaking. I was gonna run down to Vidalia this spring, and go to the airshow with Joe & Nurse Jenny. And now that won’t happen.

What amazes me is how deeply I’m touched by the circumstances of someone I barely know, and have never met in real life.

I trust that God is comforting his family, and preparing them for his homecoming. I know that Joe’s not worried about where he’ll wind up, or who he’ll be visiting for the next gazillion years or so. Maybe he’ll find out what it’s like to fly without being strapped to an airplane – I’m sure he’d like that.

And I can smile at the picture of him gliding through the air, arms outstretched like Superman, but still, my heart hurts.