atomicbird

I'd like to thank everyone who responded to my previous post, either here or in email. I appreciate the support and offers of assistance.

The continuing emergency ended just a few hours after that post appeared. Not, however, in the manner I would have preferred. From the Newark Star-Ledger, last week:

Nancy S. Harrington, 69

Mrs. Nancy S. Harrington, 69, of Montclair died on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008, at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York.

A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 16, at St. James Episcopal Church, 581 Valley Rd., Upper Montclair. A reception will follow. Friends may also visit with the family on Friday, Feb. 15, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the church. Arrangements are by the Hugh M. Moriarty Funeral Home, 76 Park St., Montclair.

Nancy was born in Detroit, Mich., on Feb. 25, 1938, the daughter of Robert and Zilpha Steele. Following graduation from Edsel Ford High School in Dearborn, Mich., she lived in Washington, D.C., Detroit and New York City. Before moving to Montclair in 1986, she and her family lived in Brooklyn and in Nyack, N.Y.

Nancy's vocational interest centered on the education of young children, a field that she worked in for most of her life. She will be remembered by a generation of children who attended St. James Pre-School in Montclair, where she taught for 20 years before retiring in 2006. She taught Sunday school at St. James Episcopal Church for 21 years, serving as the director for part of that time.

Nancy was an avid gardener, always eager to try out a new addition to her backyard garden or her window greenhouses.

Nancy is survived by her husband of 42 years, Preston Harrington; her son, Tom and wife, Carey, of Colorado Springs, Colo.; her daughter, Lisa and husband, Jeff Mead, of London, England; her son, Gerry and wife, Katey, of Forest Hills, N.Y., and her grandson, Andre. Her sister, Peggy, of Florissant, Colo., and brother, Gerry, of Anchorage, Alaska, also survive her.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. James Episcopal Church Pre-School, 581 Valley Rd., Upper Montclair, N.J. 07043.

I'm back home now and getting back to the regular cycles of my life. I'm still going through my email backlog, but should be getting back to everyone soon.

I just wanted to post a short note for people who normally see me online all the time and who may wonder what's happened to me recently. And for people sending me support emails wondering why response time is so slow lately.

The short story is that my mom developed an autoimmune condition that led to liver failure. She had been due for a transplant, but soon became much too sick to be considered a transplant candidate (you can't get a transplant unless they think you'll survive the transplant surgery). For the past several days I've been spending all my time visiting the intensive care unit at NY Presbyterian hospital.

The nice thing about independent developers is that you can get hold of the guy who wrote the software, but the downside is that one person's personal life can bring the entire operation to a halt. For those writing me in regard to customer support, Sparkle, etc, I'm not ignoring you but I just can't deal with that stuff right now. I'll get back to you all as soon as I can.

If you're religious at all, say a prayer for my mom, she'd appreciate it.