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On Missing @lilyhill

By Lynne DeVenny

The thing is, I had my eye on Twitterer @lilyhill for a professional profile for Practical Paralegalism. I just hadn?t worked up the nerve to ask my Twitter ?rock star? for it. She was one of the first half dozen or so people that I followed on Twitter, attracted to her description on J.D. Twitt?s 145 legal Tweeps to follow on Twitter (which has since grown A LOT) as a ?paralegal, social media evangelist, consultant?.

@lilyhill (for Lilyhill Consulting) immediately became one of my favorite Twitterers. When she tweeted, I smiled at her wit, was delighted by her sense of humor and marveled at her ability to find and share relevant, cutting-edge but sometimes ever so slightly delightfully off-kilter legal and professional news. She was my irreverent but knowledgeable Twitter goddess who tweeted the Tweets I wish I?d tweeted first.

So I was shocked to my toes to see this Tweet on Friday:

This is lilyhills daughter. She passed away on wednesday due to a stroke.
9:05 AM May 22nd from txt

And that?s how I found out that one of my bright stars in the Twitterverse, Roberta ?Ro? Frazier, a/k/a @lilyhill on Twitter, was extinguished.

When I finally stopped crying, I knew I?d have to write about her but wondered if I could. But I discovered I didn?t have to write about her, because she did it best herself, via Twitter.

Her Twitter bio always makes me smile, no matter how many times I read it:

@lilyhill tweeted good stuff in a witty fashion for legal professionals and social media enthusiasts, and lot of other Tweeps who were following her. I loved her Tweets because she didn?t take herself (or the legal profession) overly seriously, which in my eyes made her an on point, timely and outstanding source of news, advice and direction.

Some of her May 2009 Tweets included:

Is There Sisterhood in the Legal Profession? http://tinyurl.com/qflhwy

42 Million U.S. Women Use Social Media: Blogs Most Influential http://bit.ly/S2Lzx

How To Get Your Lawyers To Let You Do What You Want http://bit.ly/83t4v

Woman killed by her laptop http://bit.ly/14MhjY

Associate Job Losses May Mean Paralegal Job Gains http://bit.ly/WqXbp

Virtual Assistants-7 Red Flags That Say You?re in Over Your Head http://bit.ly/vMMGi Excellent points.

Impressing Your Boss with Time Management 2.0 http://bit.ly/170MS1

And @lilyhill was helpful to others, patiently guiding the newbies:

@Helen_Gordon 2- Character limit is a killer. Forget grammar, learn shortcuts. 3- Good tools here: http://bit.ly/11YMmC

@Helen_Gordon #1 Remembr tweets go everywhere. I fnd u becuz I monitr word paralegal. Unless u send a direct msg, anyone kn rd what u say.

And I think @lilyhill liked me as much as I liked her:

@Helen_Gordon Welcome to Twitter! Suggest you follow @ExpertParalegal and @VickiVoisin for starters. A lot of great paralegals on Twitter.

In one of our last DM (direct message) exchanges @lilyhill and I joked about those archaic telephones sitting on our desks collecting dust. Now many of us "twitter" instead of using the phone, and get to know a whole new world full of amazing people who are generous with their time and knowledge ? who leave a huge hole in our lives when they are suddenly gone.

I?m still surprised to not see her frequent Tweets and still missing the person that I considered my friend (and irreverent Twitter legal soulmate). For a beautiful tribute to @lilyhill by another Twitterer, @gloriabell, who said exactly what I feel, only much better, see ?Who says Twitter Relationships are not real??:

The bits and pieces of our lives that we daily share with each other on Twitter are the building blocks for those relationships. The times that we laugh together, support each other, educate one another, just chat, share virtual hugs, share wisdom & insight and on days like today, cry together. This is what builds those relationships.

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on May 25, 2009 (boomark / email).