No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Nothing on this earth lasts forever. But anything posted on the Internet comes close.

A few years ago, my friend (and friend to many who read this blog) Deborah Craig-Claar was ill. Very ill. In fact, many of her friends feared she would not long survive.  And so I wrote two posts letting people know how Deborah needed the thoughtful prayers of those who cared about her.  (My good deed.)

The good news (wonderful news, in fact) is: The prayers and/or the doctor’s treatments worked. Deborah has been in total remission from the disease long enough now that her doctors are telling her to plan for the future.

The bad news is: My old blog posts continued to pop up very high on a Google search of Deborah’s name, leaving those who don’t know her well, and those who don’t bother looking at a post date, to think she was still at death’s door.  This misunderstanding led to some awkward conversation starters for her, as in: “Gee, Deborah – I thought you were dead.” And it may have even cost Deborah some free-lance work opportunities. (Deborah’s punishment for my good deed.) 

As a long-overdue follow-up post, and for the record, let me state: Deborah Craig-Claar is doing very well. (I even “bolded” it!) She was truly very sick – and now she is a whole lot better.

If irony still exists in the universe, no doubt, she will outlive us all. She is working as actively and productively as ever. In fact, she is attempting to work with me (never an easy thing) on a re-write of an old musical of ours, called One Voice. There is nothing but good news here.

So if you run into her at the mall, try not to open with, “Wow, are you still here???”

As for my original posts, we’ve blocked them in the archives, so they will no longer appear in Google searches. I know, I know – this is a great loss to those who love to go back through my posts from years back to savor my witty prose. But this is the penance we must all collectively share for my good deed. In the meantime, hopefully this cheery post will make up somewhat for  the loss.

Do not fret. This does not signal the start of me retracting every stupid thing I’ve ever written here on this blog. After all, who has the time for that? It’s just an attempt to set the record straight for a friend’s sake.

(On the other hand – the “Paul is dead” stunt worked for these guys.)