Don't know if you ever played a game where you had to complete proverbs? I used to play it as an icebreaker when I was a Tupperware lady over a period of eight years.

It goes something like this. 'I am going to give you the first half of a proverb and I want you to complete it for me. Ready?"The grass is always greener....?"Lady eager to win the first prize:"when you mow the lawn?" Lady next to her:"when you water the lawn?" This is a good place to stop and give them both a prize. Because the secret of life is not to know the RIGHT answer but to know AN answer. And the aim of the game is just to engage them in ideas, to put them in the mood for the sales pitch.

Now I have been on this site since last May, in that time I have become a prolific poster, a blog writer and a chatterbox. And I have enjoyed every minute of it. Sometimes now when I am looking at a thread and I see the answer I have posted to someone's question back in my first months of posting I find I think differently now. More water under the bridge since then, older and wiser, maybe I have gained some knowledge of that particular area of stroke that I didn't actually have back then. The answer I gave might have not been the exact answer I would give now but it was AN answer.

I want to encourage everyone who reads this blog to reply to the posts of newbies. It is a terrifying feeling to be all alone, as a survivor, as a caregiver or as a family member. What a relief it was to me after my first post when I came back on and I had four replies. Four lovely people had reached out to help me cross from my lonely room in front of my computer into the Strokenet family.

I am thrilled with the number of newbies we have had join lately, there seemed to be a lull for a while and as some of the people who were here when I first came on dropped away for a variety of reasons I am sure I got a bit worried. What if so many people left that there was no-one on here when someone needed help? I know there are over 4400 members but some of them have never posted, some rarely post, some post regularly but not every day/week/month. What if someone came on with a need and there was no-one there to answer? Seems unlikely that would happen.

Now we are having new blogs too and that is good. If someone like me can do it so can everyone. It is like writing a letter or a report so if you've been a business person you can certainly do it. Or reprint a joke, or write us a poem or post a new recipe we can all try or at least yearn over. And a photo of you in the Gallery helps newbies put a name to a face. I am sad that some of the great bloggers like Cinder have now retired from the site. Like so many I come on several times a day and check the posts, blogs and Gallery, learning so much about how people cope with their stroke or with their partner's or parents' stroke that I become a better person just by associating with such great people.

I have a lot of worries on my mind right now. But in coming here I see so many others do too and they are coping as bravely with the hand they have been dealt as they can. And I need to too. So thank you all who honestly share their ups and downs. You really ARE a support to others.

So thanks all, for those in chat, for those who post, for the picture in the Gallery, for the PMs and the emails. I appreciate them all. Thanks to the staff, the hosts and the CEO too for having this site available, free of charge, 24 hours a day.

The grass may not be greener at your house than at mine but by showing me how you deal with that grass you show me how green my grass can one day be.