I found fandom by way of Sean Bean and Sharpe.  One of the first people I ever interacted with was govi20.  She's the moderator for the Mighty Bean forum and she helped me get an account and learn to make a user icon.  She was kind and answered my newbie questions and never made me feel like she had answered those questions oodles of times before.  She's also the caretaker for the Mighty Bean website and bean_daily here on LJ.  There is some fan fiction on the forum and from there I found my way to LJ to read other things.  Finding out there were other Sharpe fans like me and a whole bunch more in the LOTR fandom made me feel connected to the outside world during a time in my life when I felt very isolated as a clueless new parent living in a new city with a husband who travelled for work frequently, often without much prior warning.  With Govi keeping the lights on in all these places, my world was a lot brighter and I have made many friends that really mean a lot to me.

I haven't done as much Sean Bean related stuff lately and spend most of my time with ghost hunting brothers and their car, but I've continued to lurk around bean_daily and have a lot of folks from then on my flist.  In the last week or so, we learned that Govi was undergoing tests due to a spot on her lung.  Today, word went round that the spot is lung cancer and has spread to her spine.  The prognosis sucks and it sounds like she's in a lot of pain.  I wanted to post this in my journal because I think it's nice to know when you've had such a positive impact on someone else's life.  Happy comments on LJ are pure gold and I haven't left nearly enough to let Govi know what a great job she does.  These couple paragraphs don't really fill in that gap or adequately express my thanks.  Govi, I'm thinking of you and wishing you and your family all goodness, hope and a ton of courage.