Katharine.

I had a friend through high school named Katharine Gallagher. We knew of each other freshman year, but sophomore year we bonded when we went to Chicago on tour choir together and were roommates. Then junior year we went to San Francisco on tour choir, and were in the same group of friends. Senior year we hung out ALL THE TIME at school. We went to lunch together every day, and bonded over our love of music and our saltiness at the world. Typical senior year angst.

 Katharine had super liberal political views, which clashed a lot with mine. But besides the 1 or 2 times we clashed on Facebook, we were totally fine and just had an unspoken agreement to not talk about politics. Lately, we had more and more of the same views anyway.

After graduation, Katharine went to Boston University and I went to BYUI. We saw each other once or twice, but mainly kept in contact with social media. (LOVE social media for that!) When I got engaged I remember her texting me like "Are you serious...?" haha I could tell she thought I was crazy. But when I said "YES I'M SO EXCITED!" Or something like that, she was nothing but supportive.

Especially while living in Florida, I didn't have time to see her. She was living in Tustin, and now that we are in California I was hoping I could run into her down in Irvine sometime. When we had Cora, she loved her and told me how much she wanted to meet her with her red hair. (Katharine always went back and forth with her hair being red the last few years.) She had this boyfriend who seemed amazing, and she seemed SO happy. She messaged me the other day to tell me she had reconnected with someone from high school, and I asked her if she was ok in the latest wildfire. She said she was fine, and I wanted to tell her I thought she looked like she was so happy right now. I just kept putting it off! I was hoping we would see each other at our 10 year reunion next year and reconnect a little more.

Katharine died on Tuesday of a short illness. She had posted on Facebook a few days earlier that she was in the ER needing IVs for dehydration from a stomach bug, and posted Tuesday morning something silly. I got a text Wednesday morning from Jenna that she had died, and honestly I didn't believe it. How could a 27 year old die suddenly? But then I got more messages, and then her best friend confirmed it.

Katharine, I love you. I've always wondered what your marriage would have been like, and what your kids would have been like. I'm so sad for your parents, since you are their only child and it's your birthday on the 27th. The one part of Lord of the Rings that always makes me cry is when King Theoden is mourning his son's death and says "no parent should have to bury their child". That is exactly how I feel right now. This isn't fair. Your mom just beat cancer again. I keep wishing I would have been better about seeing you when I went into town. I thought I always had more time.

(Look at 18 year old us. Holy cow.)