One month ago LDS couple Christian, 29, and Stephanie Neilson, 27, from Phoenix, Ariz. were in a devastating plane crash, leaving them still today in the intensive care burn unit.
But the remarkable thing about the crash is how it has brought together complete strangers from across the world in a uniting purpose: to show support and love for Neilson family.
Stephanie Neilson has been blogging about her family for the past three years in her wildly popular blog the NeiNei Dialogues. The mother of four inspires women worldwide with her posts on the celebration of motherhood, keeping her marriage alive, and home décor among other things. To the blogger community, she is seen as a sort of supermom.
"Stephanie blogged because she wanted to share the message of motherhood,” Stephanie’s sister Courtney told KSL. “And she wanted to share the beauty of her life. The remarkable thing is people are responding to her.”
Since the accident, tens of thousands of her readers have come together in her family’s support, doing whatever they can to help.The response is overwhelming.
"We are getting thousands of e-mails from people who say, 'I've never met Stephanie. I've only read her blog. I am so inspired by her and want to be a better wife and mother,'" Courtney said.
Recently, Nei Nei Day was declared by the writer of the blog Design Mom, and one of the Neilson’s good friends. She encouraged fellow bloggers to host silent auctions on their blogs and to donate the proceeds to the Nei Recovery Fund.
In a recent post from Design Mom, she writes, “Can I just say, again and again, how delighted/impressed/touched/amazed I am by the response from you, the internet community? At last report, I heard that since Nie Nie Day, over $117,000 has been donated to the Nie Recovery Fund. The vast majority of that from auctions, in smallish increments like $50 to $100, and the remaining from good people that didn't win an auction, but wanted to contribute anyway.”
Also, her sister Courtney called on readers from her own blog, C Jane Enjoy It, to release helium balloons carrying get-well messages for the couple as an act of inspiration, and people from all over the world joined in. And since the accident one month ago, Stephanie’s blog has jumped from 2,000 hits a day to over 30,000 every day.
Most of the support has come from people who have never even met Stephanie or her family. So why are they so involved?
“Like people who deeply identify with characters on television, a character on a blog can help people escape their own anxieties and insecurities,” said Steve G. Hoffman, a visiting assistant professor of sociology at the State University at Buffalo in a New York Times article. “She is a kind of empty vessel within which her readers can fill with their personal hopes, dreams and desires.”
The readers who have raised money and shown support say they see little difference between a physical friend and their online ones, which is why they are so concerned with their recovery.
If you would like to get involved, go to neirecovery.com, blog.cjanerun.com for updates, or neineidialogues.blogspot.com to visit Stephanie’s blog.
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LDS Living
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