My Medium Friend is Missing

I joined Medium back in September but upgraded to a paid membership in October so I could read stories written by the members. I wanted to explore more about how Medium works. Fast forward to today, 18th November, I find myself attached to it daily.

I make time to read interesting, real events, and fiction stories of real Medium friends. I subscribe to the email list of those whose writing has made me walk into their lives. These are people who I’ve never met before in life, but through their content, words, and writing, I feel like they are telling me their stories as if they are sitting next to me.

It’s totally fine if I lose a follower, reader, or email subscriber. It may be that my stories don’t match their interests or aren’t even interesting. But one of the Medium members just went missing. I checked my email subscribers and realized one had unsubscribed. Which is understandable, people come and go.

I checked back on my stories and realized there’s a friend who had commented on every single one of my stories, can’t be found. I checked my email for her previous stories and clicked on it. The story appears as ‘Page Not Found’. I also tried to find her comment on other Medium friends’ stories, it also wasn’t valid.

Her Medium name is Dana, she’s a retiree according to her profile. She’s a lady who is a big fan of CHANEL. She shared her life working experience and her younger self on the pursuit of her dream job.

She spends her time sincerely reading through every Medium story of her followers daily with a schedule, only resting on Sundays where she switches off all distractions.

Below is the last story she wrote on 15th November 2023, there are a lot more that I want to read, there’s a lot more I want to get to know about this wonderful retiree lady. She has over 1000 followers.

“Dana’s Initial Adventures in Pursuit of Employment at the Age of 26 | Memoir”

“Chapter IV. ~ The Legendary Pennsylvania Avenue — Part-Time Work”

“Having been advised by Mr. Cohen on seeking jobs on the legendary Pennsylvania Avenue, the day before, I embarked on my job search in the Capitol Hill section of Pennsylvania Avenue, a stretch that extends from Capitol Hill to downtown Washington, D.C., to the White House.”

I wonder what happened to her, if she landed the job she always wanted. I’m left with just my imagination.

I repeat myself, people come and go in our lives. I wrote this not because I lost a reader or a follower. I actually lost a friend. She is one of the Medium friends who gives me the encouragement to write my first fiction stories. She is very supportive and always leaves comments encouraging me to carry on. I really appreciate her.

I’m concerned about whether she’s doing fine, or if anything could have happened to her as she is not young based on her retirement. The average age for retirement should be around 65. Could she have accidentally deactivated or deleted her Medium account and can’t retrieve it back? Is Dana one of your friends on Medium?

Dear Dana, I hope everything is okay on your side. Stay healthy, safe, and happy.