Women for Sobriety, Inc. The passing of fourcwoman August 26, 2015 Dear WFS Members and Friends, It is with such great sadness to share with you that our beloved fourcwoman, Nancy Cross, has passed away last night.  Her increasing ill health in the last few years had taken so much of her energy and time away from the WFS forum and chat room that she created and loved so very much.  She had unrelenting devotion and commitment to getting Women for Sobriety online in a format that would bring together women from all across the world to share and connect with one another as they traveled the road to recovery using the WFS “New Life” Program as their guide. Nancy became WFS’s “Internet Liaison” from the very moment she was able to set up chat room meetings way back in 1998.  As a member of the Women for Sobriety Board of Directors and a Certified Moderator, leading face-to-face meetings in Cincinnati, Ohio, she worked very closely with the WFS office and the board members to create the requirements needed for women to become Certified Chat Leaders and creating the guidelines and rules to participate on the WFS forum and in chats.  Nancy became WFS’s first CCL.  I remember way back in 1998 when she first told me about this social site on AOL, where you type messages back and forth in real time, and we both checked it out and thought it was the most fantastic thing on the World Wide Web!  Soon the first official WFS chat was underway on AOL, with 25 women attending!  There have been many changes and locations since that time…from Yahoo groups to MSN to our current location through a website company dedicated to online forum and chat software.  And because of Nancy’s passion and patience and unrelenting enthusiasm to help women learn about WFS and gain a foundation into recovery, we currently have over 10,000 women registered at the WFS forum site:  http://www.womenforsobrietyonline.com/.  There are also 7 formal chat meetings each week, led by dedicated Certified Chat Leaders who volunteer their time and share their experiences and hope. Please be reassured that her legacy will continue on!  With Nancy’s blessing, prior to her passing, the WFS office will take on the responsibility of managing the online community; and, with the support of the WFS Board of Directors, embrace the forum and chat as an official part of the Women for Sobriety organization.   I have been working with the Chat Leaders and designated members of the online community to insure that the message boards, chat meetings, and the online community will remain a positive place to gather and share in a nurturing environment, learning and growing as women embrace the WFS “New Life” Program into their sober lives. To honor Nancy’s devotion and love for the online community, WFS Chat Leader, Julie Lambie will be creating a message board on the forum devoted to Nancy, called “The Wisdom of fourcwoman”.  She will pull together all of Nancy’s posts over the years, like her MondayMessages, so the past and current online members can read and continue to be inspired by Nancy’s wisdom and experience with using our program.  We will also dedicate an upcoming edition of the WFS newsletter, Sobering Thoughts, for all who wish to share a special moment in time you shared with Nancy or remembering the first chat meeting with her…or how she may have helped you through a difficult time….share with us how the wisdom of her words or her gentle voice reached you at a time you needed it most.  Please email me at becky@womenforsobriety.org with your reflections and I will gather them through toSeptember 21st. I have received information on her funeral service and her obituary; also for those who wish to leave an online message for her family, please visit this site  My husband and I will be traveling to the service to share our love and respect for Nancy and to be able to, at some level, express to her family how much we treasured her as a member of WFS, a friend, a mentor, an inspiration to never give up hope and to try one more time.  We also want to reconnect with her face-to-face group members and share in their grief as they work through this difficult time.  Please join me in holding thoughts of love and care for her family and her devoted group members; especially for a dear WFS sister who continues to lead Nancy’s meetings and has been such a close and caring friend all these years; a bond of friendship that is now experiencing a great loss. We will be forever grateful to Nancy for her inspiration to start this huge movement for WFS to get ‘online’.  Every one of us in WFS still feels that same empowering positive energy that is created when there is a gathering of WFS women on the internet.  And, so, her loss is so very hard for us to take in our hearts and to accept.  She has touched so many lives; she has made a lasting positive imprint on our memories.  We have not lost our fourcwoman; her spirit lives on with our online community and in the words and stories she has posted over the years. Her family has shared with us that in lieu of flowers, sending a donation to WFS in Nancy’s memory would be welcomed.  In fact, your donations will help us to continue supporting her dream to see the online community live on and thrive for many years to come.  If you also wish to send a sympathy card to her family, please send it to the WFS office and I will be honored to pass that along to them.  And, if you wish to attend Nancy’s service, please let me know so that I may share more details of our gathering. Rest in peace, beautiful fourcwoman; thank you for your kindness, your generosity and your loving service to WFS, to all of us.  I will miss you, my friend. In deepest sympathy, Becky Fenner, WFS Director Women for Sobriety, Inc. PO Box 618 Quakertown, PA 18951 To send a donation using a credit card, please visit our catalog page at: www.wfscatalog.org/Donations_c16.htm

Email:  contact@womenforsobriety.org   *   Tel: 215-536-8026   *   Fax:  215-538-9026

http://www.womenforsobriety.org   *   http://www.wfscatalog.org