It's been a bit of a wild and wooly week; I'll call it a double catfish week. I belong to a small Facebook group for people who had the same weight loss surgery as me in the same month. It's a very supportive and active group and it's really been great.
About two weeks ago one of the members informed the group that another member developed complications and has a pulmonary embolism and needs our prayers. She was in an induced coma and is being watched carefully. It was very sad, she is a young woman who had lost her young daughter a few years back to Leukemia. Most of the members shuttered to think that could be anyone of us right now. Again sending home the thought of how lucky I have been.
Sadly, on Wednesday, we got word she died from a stroke. It hit me like a ton of bricks; how awful for her family. It was just horrible to think, here is someone trying to better herself and now just lost everything. Some of the members discussed sending flowers, etc. and were asking where to send it. We were told the family doesn't want anything but donations for Leukemia research. Understandable.
And then it all unraveled. Thursday night at about 2:00 AM I don't know what woke me up and made me check Facebook but I did. At around Midnight the group's administrators let us know that the death of this young woman was a complete scam. Both women's Facebook pages were now gone after the informant was confronted. It is surmised that it was to bilk people out of money or they or she has a vendetta against a surgeon or weight loss surgery in general or even overweight people. The truth of why will never really be known, but oh my God. What a twisted and cruel thing to do. To have the audacity to create this whole scenario with pictures and friends - a whole life really is just beyond belief. I can't fathom doing such a thing so I would have never have even thought twice that this would be untrue. Just unbelievable how desperate people are and would try to rattle a small group like that. As a group, the anger was palpable. It took a few days, but everyone finally moved past the betrayal. I am relived it didn't advance to anyone sending money.
It moves my thoughts to trust in this electronic age. I mentioned double catfish week and there was a situation that happened in a dating situation. Online dating can be a minefield and I am not crazy about it, but I do it because like anything else, it can be successful. I have friends who recently married meeting online. Luckily, I picked up some miss matched items and trusted my newly chopped up gut that something didn't feel right about this. I don't really know for sure, and perhaps my radar was overly heightened due to the other situation earlier in the week, but I am going with my instincts on this one.
I hate to sound preachy, but my point with all this is how careful we all must be with so much sharing in cyberworld these days. It's so easy for any one's imagination to run wild and create whole lives for themselves that are completely fabricated. It's pretty mind blowing, actually, and it happens all the time. I hate the world its become in terms of things like this because how sad it is that we all have to keep one eye keen and our instincts polished to perfection at all times. How do you sift out the truth from the sheer BS?? It's become one of the many situations that require careful navigation through the electronic age. Like I always say, I miss the 70's.
For those who don't know "catfish" is a slang term used to describe one's misrepresentation of themselves in an online, usually, social media situation for any number of reasons such as mental pathology or monetary gain.
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