Six degrees of separation in real life

Wow, what a story Helen shared today on her blog — Six Degrees of Separation: Real Life Edition.  I've been in awe about how people blogging about books have become friends without ever having met face to face.  Like my meeting with Donna, who became my best friend.  A quarter of a century ago we joined Oprah's book club when we read Oprah's very first book choice.  That was in 1996.  What are the chances we'd ever have met?  Almost zilch.  Donna lived in St. Louis, I lived in Chattanooga, and nothing would likely have ever gotten us together.  Except we were both readers.  I've met several others from that Oprah discussion group, gone to visit in the homes of a few, met others passing through my town on their way south, etc.  Meeting other readers has enriched my life:

• Though I've never met her in person, I've talked to Margreet in the Netherlands by phone and "looked around her neighborhood" via Google maps.
• Jenn was living in Europe when we "met"; years later, she and her husband and son visited me in Tennessee on their way home to St. Louis from Florida.  Now they live in Phoenix, and I live in St Louis.
• Francesca and her family stopped for lunch with me and others on this list on their way south.
• Jelani visited me from California and sang at my church.
• I visited Kathryn at her home in Connecticut.
• I met Annette during her stopover at the Atlanta airport; she now lives in Oregon.
• I visited with Nancy at a restaurant at the beach.
• Donna and I stayed overnight with Maggie's family in Maryland when we met her in person.
• I flew to Connecticut to visit Mary Grace and her family in 2001.
• Stephanie was driving through my town with her family and and stopped for a short visit.
• When my mother died, several of our close-knit, online book group sent flowers together.
• And I also "know" Rosemary and Madge and Marg in Australia and a few more whose names I'm probably missing here.