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Between working remotely (the recent snow storm to hit the east coast resulted in our offices being closed for the past two days) and clearing snow, I starting thinking about the friends and acquaintances I haven’t or heard from in the past year. We are coming up on 12 months since the pandemic hit the shutdown phase, and we began to lose track of a lot of people.
This was really pointed out to me as I was looking for a story to read this evening. While going through my bookmarks, I noticed several stories by Elsbeth.
Has anyone heard from her in the past year? The last I saw from her was on 2/8/20, at which time she posted that she was going on a business trip. Anyone know if she is OK?
Hope so!
Comments
I've been worried too
I haven't seen anything from Elsbeth in a while on the site or on Discord for a long time and I've been getting worried about her. I really hope that everything is okay with her.
*big hugs*
Amethyst
Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3
As I worry......
About you as well Sweetie.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
Elsbeth
She was very prolific for awhile and then got busy and slowed down. Then she dropped off the radar for quite awhile. She reappeared for one post of her Harry Potter tale, and I kind of got the impression she would be slowly getting back. I almost forgot her posts of Freyas Daughters that went into 2020. I dropped her a line with no response, and haven't noted her presence anywhere I haunt.
This seems to be quite a frequent occurrence here
even amongst people who have been here for years. John from Wauwatosa just disappeared, so I hope these folks are all okay and that they've simply had a better offer.
I used to wonder why I keep coming here as I've been 'living the dream' for 35 years and have a busy life outside this, but then especially during the covid situation, quite a few readers have thanked me for my scribbles saying it helped them, so here I am still and probably will as long as Erin puts up with me.
Angharad
Big Closet just wouldn’t be the same......
Without you Hon!
You are one of the authors I look for when I check in. Don’t go disappearing on me.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
Its not just on BC
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not someone with hundreds of 'friends', but I've often been part of a nucleus of like minded peeps, across different aspects of my life/work/hobbies. Sometimes those close knit groups have gone on for years, even beyond the bounds of what first brought us together but sooner or later, something happens, maybe a death, a change of job or, well I don't know, people depart with no apparent cause, often never to be heard of again.
We probably all have a small number of 'close' friends but I often find myself, especially this last year, wondering where so and so got to, where are they, are they wondering the same about me? My best friend at school, people in the cycling world I spent a lot of time with, ex work colleagues. And yes of course, people I've known, met even within the BC community.
Sometimes there is a chance encounter, they come into your workplace, you bump into them in the street, even post on the same thread on Facebook but these encounters have never, for me at least, rekindled that camaraderie we once shared, maybe a shared reminiscence, that's assuming they even recognise you (do you go and say hi? what if its not them?).
Dwelling on these lost connections makes me quite maudlin, clearly the other party(ies) had their reasons for departing, perhaps they never really liked you in the first place?
Covid and its restrictions will have made some friendships, broken others as peoples worlds have contracted to chat rooms and their own four walls, those things we did that provided social bonding - eating out, going for a drink, trips out, we can't do those things atm, the question is, when we are able to, will it be with the same people we counted as friends pre pandemic?
Madeline Anafrid Bell
I really like Elsbeth's Stories.
At some point, it came out that Elsbeth works in Security. I am not sure what that means. Possibly it is Bank Security, or some sort of "Geek" Security, or some sort of Armed Security. With my past, I want nothing to do with any of it. With the state of the Nation, I would not be at all surprised if she is quite busy. Perhaps hope for her welfare and good fortune?
Gwen
Elsbeth's final days on BCTS
Elsbeth mentioned in late February, 2020 that her old laptop died and that she expected to buy a new one soon. She travels a lot for work. On March 19th, 2020 she said she was very busy and expected to be travelling again the following week. She was still logging in every day or so at this point. She posted Freyja's Daughters Chapter 7 on April 8th, 2020. On April 9th, 2020 she said in the comments that she is "stupidly busy" but safe. I believe she was still logging in every day or two at this point and that she was planning to post a chapter of The Lost Queen in a week or so. I believe that this is the last time she has logged in.
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna tried contacting her on Discord but gotten no response.
Elsbeth's last few story chapter postings are as follows:
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/35158/elsbeth
2020/02/06 - Freyja's Daughters - Chapter 5
2020/02/14 - The Lost Queen Vol 2 Ch7
2020/03/01 - The Lost Queen Vol 2 Ch8
2020/03/12 - Freyja's Daughters - Chapter 6
2020/03/27 - The Lost Queen Vol 3 Ch1
2020/04/08 - Freyja's Daughters - Chapter 7
Elsbeth's last 3 posts were on 2020/04/09 in comments to Freyja's Daughters Ch 7 and The Lost Queen Vol 3 Ch 1, just a few weeks after the COVID pandemic started affecting her part of the world.
"Yea, i'm just stupidly busy. But I am safe as I can be. Fresh air is nice, mixed about it as too but way too many people going to state parks. Or worse taking the whole family to the market, really. Sigh, anyway be well.
-Elsbeth
"
Letting Elsbeth know
I've been sending Elsbeth message on BCTS every 2 months or so letting her know we miss her and that people are asking after her. I just sent a message to her with a link to this set of posts.
Maybe?
I believe Elsbeth works for a large corporation which invests in companies with potential but are struggling financially. Tracking some of the words and language she uses in her stories and if her real name truly is Elsbeth, such a lady lives in Wales. Again if it's "our Elsbeth", she was probably sent to investigate the financials of one such firm and the potential for investment. Such endeavors involves a lot of time and deep delving into every nook and cranny of any company.
All speculation on my pathetic very non professional Sherlock sleuthing.
Hugs Elsbeth, whoever you are, where ever you are, I pray you are okay.
Barb
Life is a gift, treasure it.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
That could easily be her.
What scares me is that as long as she remained healthy and has access to the internet, I doubt she would go from logging in every day or so and and publishing a chapter every 2 weeks to suddenly disappearing without notice. If she lost her computer and her computer pass words, it would not take that long to borrow a computer long enough to spend a few minutes to create a temporary account on BCTS and say "Hey, it's me. I'm OK."
And all of the other likely scenarios I can think of involve Elsbeth getting injured in an accident, getting very sick very quickly or dying. Which is why I'm quite worried for her.
Company computers
I have a company laptop that -- even when I'm not on the company's VPN -- will block access to BCTS (among other sites). I'm only speculating, but if a person's personal computer died, and they only had access to a locked-down company computer, it would explain their absence.
- io