1. < MAC & Bronchiectasis
Moderator

Remembering KateMN - losing a virtual friend hurts too

Posted by Colleen Young, Connect Director @colleenyoung, Aug 11, 2017

On August 4th our dear mentor, Katherine left us. Her son, Scott, sends this message that she wanted to share with you.

I HAVE A PAINTING .. IT SAYS .. “TO TRAVEL IS TO LIVE”. THE FUN OF RESEARCHING .. PLANNING .. TRAVELING IS GONE FOREVER FROM MY LIFE. HOWEVER I HAVE BEEN BLESSED TO TRAVEL SINCE MY 50’S TO ALL THE CONTINENTS BUT ANTARCTICA .. MY FAVORITE COUNTRIES .. MANY TIMES. IF MY FUTURE HELD GAZING OUT AT THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA FROM OUR BELOVED ITALIAN AMALFI COAST .. YES! I WOULD GRAB IT WITH BOTH HANDS!

MY SPIRITUALITY AND BELIEF SYSTEM .. NONE OF US KNOW WHAT IS ON THE “OTHER SIDE” BE WE CHRISTIAN, BUDDHIST, JEW, HINDU, MUSLIM OR WHATEVER FAITH .. UNTIL WE “PASS OVER”. THEN AND ONLY THEN WILL WE TRULY KNOW WHAT IS ON THE “OTHER SIDE” .. DESPITE THE DESTRUCTION RELIGION HAS WROUGHT ON PLANET EARTH. BUT I HAVE EVERY CONFIDENCE THAT AS I “PASS OVER” I AM GOING TO BE MET BY GRANDMOTHER BENNETT AND GRANDMOTHER HUNNICUTT WITH THEIR LOVING HANDS TO HELP ME “PASS OVER”. THIS I BELIEVE.

*I WAS TOLD MANY YEARS AGO THAT IN REALITY “EACH OF US IS THE STAR OF OUR OWN SHOW” .. MEANING THAT EACH OF US GO ON IN TIME WITH OUR OWN LIVES .. SO I WANT EACH OF YOU TO QUICKLY BE ” THE STAR OF OUR OWN SHOW” .. LIVING YOUR LIFE AS WELL AS I DID WILL BE YOUR BEST TRIBUTE TO ME!

I HAVE HAD A FULL LIFE. I HAVE A LIFE I CAN FEEL PROUD OF. I HAVE LIVED LIFE ETHICALLY .. LOVINGLY. I RAISED ONE SON THAT I AM VERY PROUD OF AND ONE SON THAT HAS RISEN ABOVE MANY DIFFICULTIES IN HIS LIFE THAT I AM ALSO PROUD OF. I HAD A VERY SUCCESSFUL CAREER IN AN ERA IN WHICH IT WAS VERY DIFFICULT FOR WOMEN TO SUCCEED .. ALLOWING ME TO ACCUMULATE A PORTFOLIO SUFFICIENT TO ESTABLISH A SCHOLARSHIP AT THE U OF MONTANA IN A SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT FOR GIRLS FROM MY BACKGROUND. I TRAVEL EVERY CONTINENT BUT ANTARCTICA .. FAVORITE COUNTRIES MANY TIMES OVER .. ONE OF MY FAVORITE PIECES OF ART SAYS “TO TRAVEL IS TO LIVE” .. THAT SAYS IT ALL! THIS SAID .. I HAVE LIVED WELL .. LOVED WELL. IT IS NOW TIME. GOOD BYE.

KATHERINE

KateMN

Katherine -- Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Mentor

Back in 2011 @katemn posted a simple message on Connect with “I am new to Mayo online .. I was hoping to find others…” That single post has grown to establish an incredibly supportive and knowledge community of people helping each other live well with MAC and bronchiectasis. Katherine’s relentless trumpeting of the message “knowledge is learning to advocate for yourself. Knowledge is taking back the power over your health care” will forever remain with all the members of the MAC group and continue to echo throughout Connect. Her presence and words will continue to comfort, educate and strengthen to the community.

Thank you forever, Katherine.

Dear members, I invite you to share your thoughts about Katherine here. How did she support you?

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the MAC & Bronchiectasis Support Group.

heathert | @heathert | Aug 23, 2017
In reply to @windwalker "By now, most of you have received the news that our fearless mentor, Katherine has passed..." + (show)
@windwalker

By now, most of you have received the news that our fearless mentor, Katherine has passed away. I feel certain this news has rocked the world of many of you; as it did mine. Some people have private messaged me wondering if she had succmbed finally to her bronchicstasis or MAC or pseudomonas. NO, she did not. Our condition is manageable. She contracted two more particularly nasty bugs of which were resistant to all antibiotics. I have been in touch with her son, Scott. He and I both believe she picked those bugs up when she was spending nights in the ICU with her husband and on many other trips with him in the hospital. These two particular ones are mostly acquired from hospital settings. They are super-bugs. When you hear of hospitalized people dying from pneumonia; this is what this super-bug is. I will give you the names of the bacteria for those of you that want to look it up. They are: Klebsiella pneumonia and Serratia Marcescens. These two are especially dangerous to people like us that are immunocompromised and have weakened or damaged lungs. We are the types that it likes to attack. People like us rarely survive this kind of infection. For the most part, they are antibiotic resistant. I am sharing this with you so that you know to avoid hospitals and convalescent homes whenever possible. Those can be dangerous places for us. I have a rule: I do not visit people in the hospital. I politely explain to them why I can't. We all thought the world of Katherine and prayed that she went peacefully. Her son confirmed that she did, she went in her sleep. Her interment and ceremony to celebrate her life will be on Sept. 2 at 2:00. If you can, I'd like for all of us to take pause at that time and honor her. I will post a reminder as that date gets closer. Hugs to all of you, Terri M.

Jump to this post

@windwalker Terri no I haven't seen it, is it on this post or the other one? It is all so interesting, looking forward to seeing it.

REPLY
Moderator
Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Sep 1, 2017

Celebrating Katherine
Saturday, Sept 2
2pm CT (3pm ET, 12pm PT)

Katherine's family will be celebrating her life this Saturday at 2pm CT. Her family have been following these discussion and all of your wonderful tributes to her. They will be sharing your thoughts. They know that her connections to you are profound and incredibly meaningful with a long resonance. Katherine's impact is like a pebble in a lake. Her ripples reach far and in her messages here remain forever.

REPLY
1 reply
ling123 | @ling123 | Sep 1, 2017

@colleenyoung Colleen, thank you so much for sharing this information. I had no idea that Katherine's family had been following our postings. I'm so glad that they know how much we appreciate and cherish her, as a mentor and a friend. You are right about her impact staying with us forever. What a great way to have existed in this world!

REPLY
Mariposa | @mariposa | Sep 1, 2017

I will be thinking of Katherine and her family as they celebrate her life tomorrow.
May God bless them ,
RIP Katherine,

Andrée

REPLY
Barbara Ann | @bschaper2 | Sep 5, 2017

Oh my gosh, I cannot believe it has been 2 months since I was on this forum! and Katherine has passed. One great mentor, I have copied and pasted so many of her suggestions into a Word document and have been implementing all she suggested. What a wonderful person she was, inspired me through all of her posts. Oh my gosh, I am sadden at this news! - Barb Schaper (who is preparing for Irma to hit my state, Florida)

REPLY
Mentor
Terri Martin, Volunteer Mentor | @windwalker | Sep 5, 2017
In reply to @colleenyoung "Celebrating Katherine Saturday, Sept 2 2pm CT (3pm ET, 12pm PT) Katherine's family will be celebrating..." + (show)
@colleenyoung

Celebrating Katherine
Saturday, Sept 2
2pm CT (3pm ET, 12pm PT)

Katherine's family will be celebrating her life this Saturday at 2pm CT. Her family have been following these discussion and all of your wonderful tributes to her. They will be sharing your thoughts. They know that her connections to you are profound and incredibly meaningful with a long resonance. Katherine's impact is like a pebble in a lake. Her ripples reach far and in her messages here remain forever.

Jump to this post

@colleenyoung That was lovely Colleen. I am glad that her family members were able to read over her posts. Pretty sure they already knew how wonderful she was, but now they know that we knew it too. I miss her so much.

REPLY
Mentor
Terri Martin, Volunteer Mentor | @windwalker | Sep 5, 2017

@bschaper2 Hi Barb. I imagine that was quite a shock to come back online with us and learn that about Katherine. I couldn't believe it myself. I really miss her. I hope you have your plans made to get out of Florida if Irma is def coming your way. I am nervous about the hurricane too. I live near Savannah now, but lived through hurricane Isabelle in 2003 when I lived in Virginia. It was a Cat 5 that started in the same location as Irma. I could not believe how far inland that came. It was so powerful, that it crossed N.C. then the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia,and reached Ohio! It did 5.35 billion $$ in damage. It cut a very wide swath and destroyed much of those states. So, I have a LOT of respect for the power of Irma. I would not doubt if she hits Florida; that we wouldn't catch some of it too. I am prepping also. Where are you planning on escaping to? Stay safe!

REPLY
2 replies
Barbara Ann | @bschaper2 | Sep 6, 2017
In reply to @windwalker "@bschaper2 Hi Barb. I imagine that was quite a shock to come back online with us..." + (show)
@windwalker

@bschaper2 Hi Barb. I imagine that was quite a shock to come back online with us and learn that about Katherine. I couldn't believe it myself. I really miss her. I hope you have your plans made to get out of Florida if Irma is def coming your way. I am nervous about the hurricane too. I live near Savannah now, but lived through hurricane Isabelle in 2003 when I lived in Virginia. It was a Cat 5 that started in the same location as Irma. I could not believe how far inland that came. It was so powerful, that it crossed N.C. then the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia,and reached Ohio! It did 5.35 billion $$ in damage. It cut a very wide swath and destroyed much of those states. So, I have a LOT of respect for the power of Irma. I would not doubt if she hits Florida; that we wouldn't catch some of it too. I am prepping also. Where are you planning on escaping to? Stay safe!

Jump to this post

Me and the dachshund and my oxygen are sitting Irma out in Lake County, Florida. I have been through a few hurricanes, tornadoes, snow storms. I think I am prepared, even drove to get more oxygen tanks from my supplier as they are overwhelmed. I have a friend coming Friday AM to move stuff into my crowded garage. Should be interesting and hopefully Irma will stay east of Florida. Thank you for your kind words, Terri M - still cannot believe she is gone. I have a question - how often does everyone clean off their mouthpiece attached to their daily inhalers, if they use them?

REPLY
Mentor
Terri Martin, Volunteer Mentor | @windwalker | Sep 6, 2017
In reply to @windwalker "@bschaper2 Hi Barb. I imagine that was quite a shock to come back online with us..." + (show)
@windwalker

@bschaper2 Hi Barb. I imagine that was quite a shock to come back online with us and learn that about Katherine. I couldn't believe it myself. I really miss her. I hope you have your plans made to get out of Florida if Irma is def coming your way. I am nervous about the hurricane too. I live near Savannah now, but lived through hurricane Isabelle in 2003 when I lived in Virginia. It was a Cat 5 that started in the same location as Irma. I could not believe how far inland that came. It was so powerful, that it crossed N.C. then the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia,and reached Ohio! It did 5.35 billion $$ in damage. It cut a very wide swath and destroyed much of those states. So, I have a LOT of respect for the power of Irma. I would not doubt if she hits Florida; that we wouldn't catch some of it too. I am prepping also. Where are you planning on escaping to? Stay safe!

Jump to this post

@bschaper2 Hi Barb. The mouth pieces need to be cleaned after every use. Warm soap and water is all that I use because I do not have an active infection right now. If one is in full blown infection mode; it is recommended that they be boiled for five minutes and rinsed in distilled water. I personally have just soaked them in vinegar for a half hour. I tried boiling the pari cups and the spacer, etc. my stuff melted! so, if you decide to boil it, don't let it touch the pan at all, or it gets ruined. Bacteria multiplies rapidly, especially on a damp surface. So, your saliva on the mouthpiece can easier grow millions of bacteria over-night.

REPLY
Paula_MAC-2007 | @Paula_MAC2007 | Oct 3, 2017

Hello Colleen and everyone,
I took a reprieve from this web board for some months (not due to health reasons).
Ended up having unexpected surgery last week not connected to my lungs or NTM. Upon getting home from hospital, I got a PM from a wonderful person on this blog, telling me about Katherine. Devastating! It will take me awhile to get over this. Katherine was such a unique lady, a real force for all of us taking responsibility for our own care & educating ourselves. I cherish the time I knew her.
Peace and blessings to all.
Paula

REPLY
View MoreView Less
Please sign in or register to post a reply.