What I didn’t know is how much he would change my life.

On his page, it said this: “I’m old, but happy to be alive. Living life and loving it.” And he was. On Wednesday, our Facebook community was told that it was likely his last day on earth. It was.

But he died with his friend, Tammy, who throughout the time she knew him made sure that he had all he needed. At the end, she was with him, with hospice care. And close to the end, Marcel was still talking on Facebook, still telling all of us how much he loved us.

I can’t tell you how many tears I have cried since he died. Marcel, compared to family members that have died, was articulate, interesting, and funny up until through his last day. My family has battled with Alzheimer’s and dementia and so the person has been gone long before the actual death.

Marcel’s age never interfered with his communication skills. He was known for telling us a little more about Tammy than she would like. But at the same time, he was there to counsel, encourage, and make us laugh.

Shortly after I met him, I mentioned I was looking for a camera. He told me the brand he recommended and followed up frequently asking if I had bought it yet — until I finally did. Marcel loved photography. Between him and Tammy, whose photos are amazing, I learned much about seeing through the eyes of a camera. And I learned much about seeing life through the eyes of Marcel.

Later Marcel experimented with Twitter and his tweets made me and so many others laugh:

RT @MarcelMurrell: Every new wrinkle improves my chances of beating a speeding ticket.

RT @MarcelMurrell: If you’re making a sign to be held up at a sporting event, it doesn’t hurt to use a dictionary.

RT @MarcelMurrell: Do cobwebs exist if you can no longer see them?

Marcel came to the US from France to work for NASA. He worked directly with Werhner Von Brahn, one of the most important rocket developers and champions of space exploration during the period between the 1930s and the 1970s. Marcel’ fascination with space continued throughout his life.

Marcel was known for his 1:30am time for Cheerios. When I saw that Cheerios had a Facebook fan page, I quick told him that he should become a fan because no one was a bigger fan of Cheerios than Marcel. In true Marcel fashion, he said, “Thank you, I’m heading over there right now.”

I can’t tell you how many times when I was feeling burdened, Marcel jumped in there to cheer me up or tell me it was time to take a nap, take a walk, or just relax. I encouraged a number of my friends to friend him too and those that did were just as impacted by him as I was.

I learned that he was in hospice care from my friend, Dawn Bugni, another career professional / resume writer who had friended Marcel on both Facebook and Twitter. She sent me an e-mail to make sure I was aware and we talked back and forth privately as the day went on. One of Tammy’s friends let the rest of us know on Facebook  ”Sleep well Marcel Murrell 8:02 PM November 11, 2009″

I will be forever grateful for the day that Marcel wandered into my Facebook world and into my life. He changed it and I will miss him.

We are bombarded by too much information these days and there is no way that everyone can spend time to read everything that comes to them in the form of e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, direct mail, or a thousand other forms. I get that! But getting read matters to me. Getting comments on the blog itself matters to me. When I started investigating social media, the blogs I liked best had a community of people much like Facebook or Twitter that regularly talked. It was because of that community that I made many of the following choices later on other social media formats. A few examples:

Kim Woodbridge caught my attention early on both because of the conversation on her blog and because I learned things. Kim is a WordPress expert and I followed her as she explained many of the tips of working with a WordPress blog and her adventure as she decided to become a freelancer. The post I linked to in this post is about Broccoli Soup. Look at the comments Kim gets on a topic of Broccoli Soup and notice the community Kim keeps her blog real and interesting by giving great information and at the same time keeping it personal. Out of that initial contact, I hired Kim to move my blog from an independent WordPress location to my website and to give it a facelift to match the website. I would hire Kim again (and probably will soon) because she understands the WordPress world far better than I do.

As you might have realized, Jason Alba has influenced me tremendously. We met on career industry e-lists and his willingness to be personable, caring, and helpful struck me. I read his blog posts then and still do. And follow his tweets, Facebook posts, and LinkedIn growth. Jason has always been the example I cite for my clients when they worry about being unemployed. If you don’t know Jason’s story, click here. I’ve called him “the lemons to lemonade guy” more than once.

Joe Jacobi gave me the first introduction to social media when he and Bob Campbell invited me to LinkedIn. He has consistently led by example by the way he uses Twitter, Facebook, his video blogs and more to communicate and grow community. His most recent video blog with Jessie Stone from Soft Power Health is inspirational and really reflects the Joe I have grown to know so much better since we started talking through social media. Joe came to Wausau for Wausau Whitewater this summer to coach at one of our training camps and by the time he got here and we went to dinner, we had so much more common ground than we had in the days when we only met on the river when he came to compete or coach.

Danny Brown was another of the people I met early in social media. From Danny, I learned how social media and fundraising can integrate and be successful. His project 12for12K is a clear inspiration of how to bring causes that many people never knew about and get community involved in working together, showing that even small amounts can do great things. He has a great way of communicating and building community and like Jason, even though I know he has much to do, he has commented back to me. I am always amazed when people do that.

I could go on for pages of people who have expanded my horizons and given me joy through social media. But I won’t. Before I end, I will say that if I had one person that has amazed me beyond believe through my social media connection, it would be Marcel Murrell who at 95, has mastered Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook and has entertained, counseled, inspired, and taught those of us who follow him along the way.

Numbers, no, not number of followers, numbers of friends, numbers of connections, not numbers… lessons, friendships, community, and amazement have been the reason behind my forage into social media.

How about you? Who inspired you and why are you here?