A story unfolds on Twitter

Wednesday, January 14, 2009 by Dave Winer.

Someone I know, not well, who lives far away is going through hell. The story is notable because it's unfolded in real time on Twitter.  

I don't want to say who because: 1. It's very heavy. 2. I don't want to burden this person with the decision about how public she wants to be. If she reads this and says it's okay to post a link to the on Twitter, I will. If not, I'll wait. 

I wanted to write about it because the story is so powerful. 

It begins a few days ago, her mother is sick. She takes her to the hospital. It's obviously pretty bad, but we don't know how bad. Not clear if they do, but her mother is terrified. The sister is there, with neices. They argue about something. The mother gets worse. The doctors do tests. The mother dies. 

From there the situation spins out of control. The story is told with a very wet brush, with lots of paint splattering all over the place in 140-character snippets separated by huge gaps of time. It's the unpredictability of it that makes it so compelling.  

I can't imagine the pain.  

But there it is, shared, in real time, with a few hundred on-lookers.  

I feel like I'm witnessing history. 

It helps that the protagonist is a great writer.