Help Desk contributed to solace of others

I will miss the computer guys on your Tuesday morning, locally produced show [Help Desk]. But my missing it is not as important as Camilla Flintermann’s use of it while she was living.

Camilla was a retired woman, widow of Peter Flintermann (a professor at Miami). He eventually died of Parkinson’s Disease. Camilla, as his primary caregiver found solace and support in an online chat group for Parkinson’s Caregivers. She eventually became moderator of that group as well as one of its chatters. She also used her computer to moderate a chat group of Palestinians and Jews who wished to bring peace to the West Bank region of Israel. Since many Palestinians have left the area to find work around the world, and there are many others from around the world who wish to offer their comments, this was a world-wide network for peace. Camilla was not very computer literate and your computer guys helped her solve more than one glitch on her computer. You even used her voice on your advertising piece describing how many emails she had waiting when the computer guys finally got her back into her email system.

While many people never get to know how their efforts contributed to the peace and solace of others, I wanted you and the computer guys to know what your efforts meant.

I’m so sorry this resource will no longer be with us here in Oxford.

--Bonita Porter, MA
SUMSRI Program Coordinator
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Miami University