Digital care for analog person

Bridgepoint Health, a health care complex in Toronto, has a web page where people can send messages to residents. Most residents don’t have Internet access, but inbound webmail is printed out for them.
This came to my attention because a regular on the Copyediting-L e-mail list went offline for a couple of days. When other regulars started inquiring about his whereabouts, we discovered he had been injured in a fall and is in a live-in rehab facility for a couple of months. In less than two days, listmembers had organized dozens of goodies and messages to be sent in a variety of ways, including offers to provide a refurb laptop or PDA (declined). Cards, calls, and gifts came from Japan, Israel, Australia, and all over North America—all from people this man had never met.
In the midst of the flurry, one member said that it reminded her of the saying, “None of us is as smart as all of us.”