After almost three weeks of trying to contact a friend and former colleague in Italy to check on his well being I finally got an email back from him last night

I had become very alarmed at not hearing from him and reading about the conditions in Italy. It is easy for me to understand the spread of the disease in Italy---they are very social beings---it is core to their culture. In his response email he sent me a virtual hug.

He and his family and all the rest of our former "crew" remain safe---and locked down. He is in the midst of the worst area. Our plant was in Tuscany and he lives further north near Milan.

He did confirm conditions in Italy are very difficult at the moment and they have gone to measures very similar to us---but not soon enough.

Email filters can make bad calls and for the most part they can go unnoticed and that is what happened here---I am grateful it was a filter problem and nothing worse