Friday, March 19, 2010

The tweet heard around the world. Keep going, Jeremy!

I shouldn't have been up. Seriously. But thankfully, I was. At 1:32 am, Nia Vardalos (Actress, screenwriter, director, comedian extraordinaire - oh yeah, and star of the FANTASTIC My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I LOVE her.) sent out a twitter to her 33,000+ followers:

@NiaVardalos: Please send help, this man is having thoughts of suicide. JEREMY, please call 1800-SUICIDE to talk @Jeremyllynch

I thought that it might be a hoax, but twittered to @Jeremyllynch anyway. So did dozens, hundreds,( maybe thousands?) of others. At this point, I was wide awake, and worried about this complete stranger from Casselberry, Florida. So many people sent kind words of encouragement, which are heartwarming to read. He originally twittered to Demi Moore (@MrsKutcher) but I received my updates from Nia.

@ jsmisko @jeremyllynch Hope u r ok this morning. "Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes." ~ Benjamin Disraeli

@ NerdfighterAbby @jeremyllynch Hey, Jeremy. I heard about how you feeling. Hope this helps.

(She linked to this image)
Secret. 8289 by =DeviantArtSecret on deviantART


@sanginlady @jeremyllynch I am praying 4 your strength Jeremy, U can get thru this rough time, to make your life better, dont forget 2 lean on love man

@sarascaj @jeremyllynch I just wanted 2 send a ((hug)) I care.

@jrzjlo @jeremyllynch @mrskutcher I wish more people would reach out when they feel like this. It is never as dark as it seems n ppl do care! BlessU


Without internet, I was glued to my phone. Nia called the Florida police and the suicide hotline, and finally I received this update, about half an hour later:

@NiaVardalos: Just spoke to FL police again, they're with Jeremy now. He is ok, it's not a hoax. Thank u all for sending love to @jeremyllynch.

This could've very possibly been an attempt to get attention, for all we knew, Jeremy Llynch could have been telling some big joke. But he wasn't. There were complete strangers all over the world reaching out with 140 characters of compassion, which is the real power of social media. People can say that it's a waste of time, but I honestly believe that twitter saved a life, and I'm glad that I was a tiny part. :)

1 comment:

  1. wow! thank you for posting this. was wondering how jeremy is.

    ReplyDelete

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