Dear Ally, 

I have not met you, but I have known you for three years now. Our correspondence has only been through the Internet, yet in this time, I have learnt enough about you to adore you, and I have learnt enough through you to know you are significant to me.

Today, you published a very personal, brave post  and I cried for you twice: once for your news, the second for your strength. My heart ached as I realised, although we've never met, hearing your news upset me greatly, and it's all I can think about today. This, dear Ally, speaks so much of your character. It takes someone truly exceptional to have others weep for you before they have even met you.

I don't know why things happen, and I believe people spend most of their lives in the pursuit of these reasons. It's heartbreaking to realise that most of the time, there really are no reasons. Things happen as a response to something else that has happened, this cycle repeats, and this is life. The story of 2 lovers at Bed, Bath and Beyond becomes so much more complicated when you think about all the decisions required to make that moment possible: the BB&B stockist's decision to stock a certain item that prompted one or both lovers to go that day, the car company's decision to create that car and make it available to both lovers, the socio-economic capabilities of both lovers to afford such a car, all the factors that led to the achievement of their capabilities...the damn list keeps getting longer the more I think about it, and I did think about it until my head turned into a labyrinth, where two dots starting from different sides of the maze somehow found their way to the centre at the same time, despite the likelihood that either one could have chosen to turn a different path at any moment. That's crazy! That's frightening! If I had solved the world's most complicated maze on my first try, you would have accused me of witchery. Yet here we are, so many decisions and intuitive turns in the maze by the both of us so that you and I could know each other. I don't know how we did it, but our dots met somewhere on this stupid, wonderful labyrinth and I am so grateful. Man, I am so grateful.

It's okay to be scared Ally. And it sure as hell is okay to be angry. You are allowed to be sad, we will love you more for it. Happiness is not the absence of sadness, it's the conquering of it. I think this is true for so many things: bravery & fear, selflessness & selfishness, good & evil. Emotions exist not in isolation but in spite of others. Happiness was created to defeat the demons, and as long as you keep on fighting it will continue to dominate your life. There is no shame in losing sometimes, just like there is no legitimacy to believing you are better than those who are sad. So, dear Ally, if writing and sharing your happiness makes you feel fab, then we will be here to listen to your sorrows and worries too.

You have created a community of readers and writers through sheer charisma, positivity and dedication, and just as we have all drawn strength from your positivity, please now let us be your source of hope.

All of my love,