Department of sad news: Anita Rowland
Popular Seattle blogger Anita Rowland passed away this afternoon. She had been battling cancer since 2003, and though everyone thought she had a few months left, she had a sudden decline the last few days.
Anita was among the first people I met when I moved to Seattle and started this whole blogging thing. She was always interested in the people she met, and she found something worth talking about in every conversation. It’s a terrible loss, and she will be missed.
Her husband Jack has made a memorial post for condolences and memories.
I’m really sad right now. I don’t know what else to say.
Sad news, indeed. I’m very sorry to hear this. Thanks, though, for letting us know.
Sorry to hear about this. Condolences to her family.
She was a good freind of mine and was a genine wonderfull person.
Before there was such a thing as socware or Web 2.0 generated community there was Anita Rowland.
I don’t know how many times somebody called her the Den Mother of Seattle Bloggers. I used to leave her a comments saying she was the Pamela Harriman/Leticia Baldridge of of the Blogosphere. She took it all with a grain of salt and with good humor.
Tonight I’m overcome with a sense of loss.
This was actually a terribly difficult post for me to write, because I wanted to get the information out there but at the same time I couldn’t process my feelings yet–she had only been gone for a few hours.
I moved here and didn’t know a soul in Seattle, and as I slowly became part of the blogging community, Anita was always a cheerleader for me. She was always interested in my growth, as I moved from who I was then to who I am now, and it was only a few weeks ago that she was commenting on Flickr pictures. I owe some part of who I am now to Anita’s belief that I could be whoever I wanted.