I hope she isn't in the hospital, losing money and seeds is bad but nothing so terrible as losing someone's health or God forbid ,life. Sorry about it Lime and everyone.

Angel-Chris , we've traded last August, my note has a large GREAT over it. Hope and pray she's well.

Healthy and therefore more enjoyable Holiday season to you Lime and all.

Bea

Hi, I just read at the round robin that her father had a stroke and she really thought that she had mailed them out and here they were in the trunk of her car! :) From what I read all is good in swap land and I am sure one of those ladies will be posting here as soon as they get their seeds to clear her name....I am relieved to hear that she is OK but sorry to hear about her father,I hope everything goes well and that he is capable of recovery.I don't know Chris and have never traded with her but it did seem a little out of character to me from what I read from and about her.I am so happy to hear that all the ladies involved with the swap will get their seeds afterall! :)

More than one Angel-Angie on line, thank you for the update.
I'm sharing your sentiments and glad Chris is okay, hope her dad recovers well. It was early in the morning, I haven't kept in touch enough, didn't even check the date of the post Lime made, then did the search on Chris and read all those positive comments and was even more convinced something went wrong. She sounds like a very caring person, just read her profile.

Happy Holidays,

Bea

I feel a little bad about posting the negative, but we were all so frustrated about not getting our seeds, responses to emails and letters and cards. Finally the phone calls seemed to do it. I finally got my seeds today (from a swap that had a "send in" deadline of Sept 30)

I would change it to "caution".

Lime

I've traded with angel14437 since she joined GW, NEVER do I feel she'd take any seeds (yes, they might be late due to circumstances beyond her control -- she already cares for her disabled daughter FT in home), if memory serves me correctly don't believe her father lived in NY so she had lots of serious work to find good, quality care for her disabled daughter before heading to her father in another state who recently had a stroke -- am I the only person who finds the time/days tween Sept and Dec seem to disappear tween all we do with/for families, add gardening, etc . . . add Chris's daughter, who is a constant in her life, has anyone ever cared for a disabled child besides Chris? I have, an autistic son, and suddenly mos turn into . . .
May I ask everyone who posts here to pls ask themselves to wait longer, I'm no stranger to anger (no "angel" here, a work in progress), and trite as it sounds time does . . . especially considering the holiday season, adding her Member Page explanation.
We all needed this R&R badly long ago. I had nowhere to post nearly 3 yrs ago when our RR box full of seeds disappeared somewhere down south, took me loong time to try RR's again. I urge all kind gardeners, 99% of GW folk, to remove any CAUTION from angel14437, instead send her Christmas Peace. The fear of loosing her father . . . on top of her many other constant responsibilities can be overwhelming.
Merry Christmas All,
Katie
GW: katie88

Chris, God bless her, no doubt had tons on her mind and in her life, and nobody is denying that. But when a hostess takes on a responsibility such as a swap like this it seems to me a reasonable thing to keep up with it until it's over.

There is nothing quite so maddening (and I don't mean angering, I mean driving me nuts with worry) to the rest of us as when the swap is 3/4 done and then our hostess who was obviously enjoying the task and doing really well suddenly drops off the face of the earth to the point where mail and postcards with phone numbers and offers of help go unanswered. I am not in the habit of reading the obits, but there I was trying to find an online paper local to her that might have any information to explain what happened!

There is an explanation why this all happened, but until Chris gets back online to discuss it there is no knowing the reasons.

The R&R is for us to post our experiences - good, bad, or in between, and you can't superimpose your experience on somebody else's and make theirs go away; all you can do is tell your story. The good stories should be taken into consideration with the not-so-good... we are all human after all. Hey, even negatives have their silver lining - if I have a weak point I guess I want people to know so they don't expect what I can't deliver. ;-)

So here's my experience with Angel14437's swap:

Communication was excellent at the start, and emails were answered in a timely manner for a long time. Seeds began returning to swappers mid October, quite close to on-time, especially considering the number of swappers involved. Last post from Chris was October 18 when she mentioned computer problems. I believe there were 10 of us who had not received seeds at that point, so attempts were made throughout October and November to contact Chris through mail, email, and phone without response. Eventually she was reached by phone on/about December 10 and found the missing seeds in her car trunk, and relayed she would send them out. I received my seeds on Dec. 24, postmarked Dec. 21.

Terri (rofLoL)
:-)

I remember the lost boxes down south, Katie88. I also remember someone clipping my own RR box and having to replace the darn thing for the last in line on the robin. I agree that people should be given the benefit of the doubt for a reasonable amount of time. Somehow, these things usually end up getting straightened out and sometimes there is even a very understandable explanation as to what happened. However, people also need to be held accountable. A simple acknowledgement to any member in the group (phone call, card through the mail, email, posting) as to either what was going on or honesty in when the packages would have been mailed would have prevented any of this.

We need to work together as a group to safeguard our big swaps. It's really unpleasant for everyone involved when something goes wrong and none of us really want to have to be a part of trying to get it corrected. We need easy, workable methods so we are not left in situations like this example. For instance, there is no reason why a hostess can't have a co-hostess. Someone to swap phone numbers with for emergency situations/computer crashes or even to step up and complete the swap if need be. How simple.

All that we need is just one big swap to go bad, not be completed and all heck is going to break loose on the robin forum. Just look at what happened to our round robin boxes. We can't do them anymore. People steal, it's horrible. It would be so easy for someone to sign up to host a fake swap, just think about how leary everyone would be sending in large packages if that started to happen. Lime, I know you took the brunt of getting our packages sent out but I'm thankful for your efforts because you were able to get the swap closed for us. I don't think it's in our best interests to leave these things open indefinitely.