A prominent member of the J-land community on AOL, Blogger and Facebook for over 13 years has left us.
Donna Diggins was an outstanding designer of tags and graphics, and took centre stage in our community. When I first joined J-land, in November 2005 (for the VIVI awards), she drew me right into the group, even though I had appeared from nowhere.
I was amazed over the years by the beautiful computer graphics that Donna made, many of them animated and quite a few personalised - on request sometimes. They adorned our blogs on AOL until that was shut down (in 2008), and later on Blogger and other platforms.
Donna began to experience increasingly severe health problems, and she confided the medical details with me. A diagnosis of cancer was not confirmed until later in the year, but treatments were attempted and implemented as late as the end of October. But when the news came that Donna was in hospice, I knew that the only hope was that she would be comfortable. In the morning of Saturday 3rd November, she was alert to read the messages from her on-line friends, and watch the compilation video.
It was 9.50pm in the UK on 4th November when I read Karen's sad message that a leading light in our community had been extinguished. I thought of Donna when I stepped outside to check for the aurora. The autumn stars lit up the night sky. One of them might have been her.
Rest in peace, my friend. You meant more to me than I realised.
You are greatly missed, by your friends on-line, in real life and most of all by your family. It was only a few days off the 11th anniversary of the loss of your sister Pat. You are with her now.
