GOODBYE MY SWEET ANGEL

As many of you know who read my blog, my precious daughter Katy has been quite ill for some time.

On November 5 a beautiful light went out in this world. My amazing, loving, wonderful daughter Katy flew away with the angels.

She left peacefully the way she wanted with her sister and lifelong best friend Cary and me by her side. Katy touched so many people in her time here on earth and fought bravely through an almost lifelong illness.

Her loss will be felt by so many, but her love and bravery should be a beacon to all of us.

I miss my sweet girl, more than she could possibly ever know, but I know she is somewhere resting peacefully now.

One of Katy's friends wrote this about her.

Dear Katy,

In this time of grief, it is too hard for me to assemble a message that does you justice, but I want to write you something now. You share a few of your many titles: artist, aunt, actress, poet and dreamer. While you were wonderful in all of your roles, you were much more than any title could convey.

You absolutely adored your family and took ultimate joy in your close relationships with them. You were a sincere friend with whom I could talk for hours or sit in silence with understanding. Your thoughts and passions were informed and insightful, and you communicated these with eloquence, tact, and sensitivity, infused with your sweet right-on humor. You advocated for what mattered and what was in everyone's best interests. You were the strongest and bravest person I knew and fought Primary Immunodeficiency and its complications with grace while spreading awareness. You were gentle, but resolute and inspired higher standards for all of us with your values and dignity. You were exceptionally talented and made far-reaching impacts on this world, with your expressions, advocacy, and in your relationships. Your beauty inside and out was one of a kind. Everything you were and did was a work of art - a masterpiece - that will live forever.

Simply put, you were too good for this world, too often full of injustice and pain, of which you had an undo share. Yet you cherished all of the good you could find, illuminating the beauty in life for us all.

I won't say goodbye but will learn what this new phase of communication will be like. Katy, my irreplaceable friend I hope you know you will be a part of my life in countless memories and in my heart forever.

Love you always,

Kelly

I heard from so many people who talked about how Katy touched their lives. She had a unique ability to really listen.

Katy fought so hard for so many years, but in the end, she knew her fight was over and her thoughts were for her family and how it would hurt us that she was leaving.

The day before she passed I told her I loved her and she whispered I love you too. That was the last thing she said to me.

Cary found this poem Katy left on her phone.

When death comes

like the hungry bear in autumn;

when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;

when death comes

like the measle-pox

when death comes

like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:

what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything

as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,

and I look upon time as no more than an idea,

and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common

as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,

tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something

precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say all my life

I was a bride married to amazement.

I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder

if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,

or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world

Mary Oliver

When Death Comes

Katy worked hard to raise money for the Immune Deficiency Foundation so that new treatments would help young people to not have to suffer the way she did.

At the end of her life, the money we raised was one of the things that brought her joy.

If you are able and feel it in your heart I would love it if you could donate to IDF for Katy Walker

I will continue to take time off from blogging but hope to come back some in the new year.