Last Tuesday night my mother was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with several fast-growing malignant brain tumors. Life as we know it was pulled from under our feet. By Friday she had had major neurosurgery.

One challenge has been trying to keep all her many friends and extended family members up to date — and  to nicely keep people from coming to the hospital as my mother is in no shape for visitors.

So how great was it to find two free social networking services, CaringBridge and CarePages, that let you update the patient’s progress, alerting friends and family about the posts by email. The social networks also include a guestbook where people can leave notes for my mother in one place.

Hopefully we’ll also use CaringBridge to mobilize casseroles (OK, lobster rolls) and rides to the beach when my mother is able to return home to Cape Cod, her number one priority.

The real beauty of these sites is that they’re so simple, to both set up and for my mother’s contemporaries to use.  I love social technologies that address a real need.  Thank you, thank you CaringBridge. (That’s what I went with because I like supporting non-profits.)

I hope you never have need, but if you know someone who does, please make their life a little easier by recommending these sites.