Sorry I’ve been away so long. It’s been a tough few months for me.
Anyhow, I’m not the subject of this post. Ellie is. She’s had a variety of user names on the forum, Chocorange was her most recent.
I had a text this morning from a good friend of Ellie’s. She passed away this morning, so I had a text from a friend of hers (a real world friend), to let me know. She’d given a list of people to contact when / if she reached the end.
Life has been bloody hard for Ellie, not only was she already badly disabled by sodding MS (sorry for being so candid but it’s true), she had bad reactions to the Covid jabs which made life even harder for her.
Ellie was one of the most special people I have ever known (even though we never met I counted her as a friend). She made friends wherever she went, even if it was only in the virtual world. She also made heroic journeys all about Britain to meet people, so some of you may have met her in the past.
Too many people are dying amongst us. Often not even from MS, cancer of one kind or another is snatching some of the best of us.
It’s made me very sad to hear about Ellie, but I was told she had a peaceful death with her Mum at her side. Life has been so hard for her; sometimes it’s a bloody sad but necessary blessing.
I have a card she sent me a few years ago with a lovely candle on it. It’s lived on my bookshelf opposite my chair ever since. When I look at it, I see lovely Ellie and always will. Bless her, she was one of the nicest, kindest, loveliest people I knew and I’ll miss her.
I had the great pleasure of meeting Ellie in Glasgow a good few years ago, and without doubt, she was every bit as lovely in real life, as in the virtual world.
She will be missed by all who knew her.
That’s so sad Sue. We shared a few private messages and she explained how her poor vision made using the forum difficult. It’s terribly sad when one of the crew leave. Sleep peacefully Ellie.
Thank you for telling us this sad news, Sue. Chocorange was an old hand, and an ever-kind and cheerful presence on here long before I joined, and that was a little while ago. That is sad news indeed.
I’m so so sorry to hear this. I nearly met her when she visited my home city but I couldn’t get a lift into town that day. She was truly amazing. The world needs more like this lovely, caring, courageous lady. So sad she’s gone but something of a blessing that she’s now at peace. My thoughts are with her loved ones who will miss her dreadfully.
Thank you all for your messages. I sent a text just now to Ellie’s friend (who told me about her passing). I thought all the comments were so lovely, just as she was. So it was important to pass on the comments made by the forum community. This is what I said:
I put a post on the forum yesterday. Many people have replied to say how sad they are. The message repeated again and again was how very special El was. Some people had met her, many more just knew her from the forum. The most frequent word used about her is ‘lovely’.
One of the reasons for this can be shown in Ellie’s own words in a post last November. A comment was made that although the forum was ‘less fun than it used to be, people still come looking for help, advice or information’. Ellie said:
I t s b l @@ d y h a r d b u t i f m y w o r d s g i v e h o p e t o j u s t o n e p e r s o n t h e n t h e e f f o r t i s w o r t h i t.
E l
(I copied that post just as she wrote it, although on the text I wrote it as plain text.)
At the time Ellie’s health was awful. She’d had such a terrible time throughout lockdown including those awful reactions to the covid vaccinations. Yet she was still thinking about other people and trying to help them.
Many people have said what great affection they’ve felt for El and that ‘she will be missed by all who knew her’.
Please pass this on to her family if you can and if/when it’s appropriate. Ellie was a beloved member of our community. Many of us feel her passing as a deep wound.
I’ve had an immediate response to my text, Clare (Ellie’s friend) has been collating comments made by people to her about Ellie. She’s been reading this thread and would like to incorporate it with our permission. I have said on all our behalf that it would be fine to send your comments on to the family. If anyone’s not keen, either say so here (so Clare can omit your post), or PM me and I’ll pass that on.
I am so sorry to hear this. I was just wondering about her last week. Her posts were uplifting just because she made a concentrated effort to be here with us. My condolences to Clare and Ellie’s family, including those on the forum who knew her.
An update for you all, following conversations with Clare. At Ellie’s request, there’s to be no funeral. Thus she’s having a direct cremation. This will happen tomorrow. Her family are planning a memorial around the time of her birthday (29th October). So if any of you wanted to take the time tomorrow to think about lovely Ellie, you’ll be joining metaphorically her family and friends as they remember what a special woman she was.
I didn’t know her but it’s sad to lose one of our own.