Countless former members of CarePages.com may just be finding out that they no longer have access to their online journals documenting the illnesses of loved ones.
One mother told NBC 5 Thursday the shutdown has left her broken and feeling the loss of a child all over again.
For months it was space Angela Grier used to document her 7-year-old son Nate’s battle with brain cancer.
“I logged on there and I journaled and I blogged on there like almost every day," Grier said.
“And after he passed I would write notes to him," she said. "And whenever I was having a hard day or a rough time, I would go back to those pages and read about his journey and the things that he went through.”
But late last year CarePages.com, where families and the chronically ill posted updates and photos, quietly announced it would shut down as of Dec. 31.
The website reportedly closed due to declining membership and increased competition. But the closure also meant years of personal entries suddenly disappeared.
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“Who would think it would just be gone all of a sudden," Grier said. "All of a sudden it’s just gone. Everything is just gone. And I can’t get it back.”
Grier says she scoured her emails going back years to see if she had missed a notification--but found nothing.
On Thursday, exactly eight years to the day that Nate died, she says not having access to her entries opens up old wounds.
"... It’s like losing a part of him all over again," she said.
CarePages has not responded to NBC 5's calls or emails about what--if anything--former members can do to recover their entries.
Grier says had she known about the closure, she would have done whatever it took to preserve the memories from her son’s final days.
