Finding my mom on the internet
There is scant digital trace of my mom, Kristi Kyte. She died in 2011. She never really got into social media. She didn't take a lot of digital photos or video; she barely had email.
This makes it kind of difficult to write about her. She wasn't famous, or well known, so there wasn't a lot of archiving of her life and work. Her public life isn't on display like it is for so many people today. This isn't totally a bad thing. It just means I have to work harder to find details.
I have journals, interviews with those who knew her, medical records, physical photographs, artifacts, and contextual materials such as newspapers/publishing describing the world Mom lived in. But I don't have a self-made digital trail of her life, or a mass recording from others of her life.
A few years ago though, I was digging for anything that might be on the internet. I found this small recorded moment, a tiny pitstop on the internet. Not much came up, even through an archival search through newspapers and publications. That's why it was a joy when on like on a page 4 of Google — with some specific keyword search — I found a forum from an Orthotics and Prosthetics website from February, 2000. It was originally a listserve, called an, "e-mail discussion list for orthotics and prosthetics." Someone posted the question:
I am looking for advice in regards the a patient. Here are the specifics:
11 month old male
congenital R mid level trans radial level residual limb.
full ROM at the elbow and shoulder
no other health issues.
Patient was referred by their Orthopedic M.D. for fitting of a prosthesis. My experience with this young of a patient is limited. My questions are the following:
What age is it most appropriate to initiate treatment?
How about suspension of the prosthesis?
Passive hand type of terminal device? Specific reccomendations of brands?
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Steve Fletcher, CPO
Shands Hospital at the University of Florida
And near the bottom, I saw Mom's name. The response suggested:
I can't be 100% sure it was Mom, but there are some strong clues. Mom worked at her peak in 2000. She was in her fourth year at a Shriners Hospital in Salt Lake City, UT, and she was registered and licensed occupational therapist. I have her certificates that she renewed often. And everyone I have ever talked to about Mom's professional life has said she was "one of the best."
Mom studied, listened to patients, had over 10 years of experience at this point, and cared deeply about her work. Also, the answer says, "Miss" which indicates she was not married. Mom, Kristi Kyte wasn't in 2000. This is the same spelling of her name. It's a jolt of joy to come across this bit of history and to see Mom in the eyes of someone who knew her at a distance. Someone who thought to suggest her as a professional resource.
I recently used this internet page as a source for my book. It was hard to find where I had stored the link, and couldn't find it on Google. I eventually found the keywords I needed in an old document in my computer, it wasn't easy to find. It reminded me that I need to do a better job of archiving material and organizing information.
While trying to find it, I feared the webpage was down. I thought maybe the link had gone dead. Considering the date and context, I see little reason for this page to exist. So I took screen shots and saved it to the Internet Archive. This is something I could have done a few years ago, but I knew less about tech then. I have better perspective now.
I also understand the larger importance to preserve small things like old webpages, postings from activists and journalists, and digital history hunkered in its context. This is even more important as more and more AI content fills the Internet. We need to remember what humans made and thought.
So, if there is an important page you want to keep alive, consider saving it at the Internet Archive. Whatever your work or life, don't let important details get erased, especially as so much power on the internet belongs to platforms and, not, the many people who use the internet.
Details matter, especially after a person has passed away. This is small, but this feels like a way to save Mom's history.
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