Goodbye Ecomom.com and Jody Sherman

On January 29th, I learned that Jody Sherman, co-founder of Ecomom.com, had passed away. His death for me was shocking and sudden. I was struck with profound sadness at the loss of one the greatest people I have never met. I will forever be regretful that I did not have the opportunity to sit down with Jody in person. 

If you have been a long time reader of this blog then you know that Ecomom is a company that helped me get my blogging start, but Ecomom was so much more then a company to me. Jody was a mentor, a cheerleader for my work and a friend. I received emails from him at my start, in praise of my writing and my direction. When I was uncertain of my voice, Jody helped me to find it. When I was uncertain of my contribution to the blogosphere, Jody called me on the phone and gave me a pep talk that helped me overcome a very difficult time. 

I remember so fondly his encouragement, his amazing humor and ability to see the silver lining. I remember talking to him about his vision for Ecomom, something that I feel he did get to see come to fruition before he too soon passed. 

This morning I and thousands of others learn that Ecomom.com has also left us. I can only assume this comes on the tails of Jody's passing. I don't blame them. The parenting community will mourn the loss of an amazing company for years to come. It is not often that I would love a company so much that I would write a whole post about their closing. Ecomom was more then just a place to buy things, it was a community of wonderful people all helping each other out and having fun while doing it. They were a group of people I trusted and supported. They will be missed. Jody Sherman will be missed.