team kathleen

I don't have many friends in Pittsburgh. It's my own fault, I'm pathologically shy. But one person I am friends with is, Kathleen. Kathleen has a whole slew of friends. She is just one of those people that has a way about them that people gravitate towards. I think it's because she is one of the easiest people to talk to. She's smart, funny and incredibly creative but she never takes herself too seriously. It's a modesty that's baffling when I see some of the artwork she just tosses out so easily. Kathleen was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer this past summer. She's gone through a masectomy, chemo and radiation with a spirit and humor that is unlike anything I could imagine being capable of. She will make numerous jokes (very funny, very dark) in reference to what she's going through, but I never hear her complain. I honestly don't know how she does it. I mean look at the poster she made in an hour of goofing around on photoshop, it brings me to tears when I look at it and think of what she's been through but, at the same time, it's funny. It has an unsinkable spirit and that's Kathleen in a nutshell. She has one particular friend, Karen, that has gone above and beyond what one might expect in terms of help from a friend, Kathleen no longer considers her a friend as much as family because that's just what she's been to Kathleen. But there are others, so many others, that have helped her throughout the past nine months. When I see the love people have for Kathleen, it makes me think of Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life. She truly is rich with the friends she has. And her family is pretty great too, I love her parents. There is a group of us that is running for Kathleen this Mother's Day. I loathe hitting people up for donations, where you click on everyone in your email address box and send the prewritten spiel. And, honestly, I'd rather raise money to give directly to Kathleen than to Susan G. Komen race for the cure, not that I don't think they deserve money, they do, and I know it helps with research and all that, I get it. But I want to help my friend because she's incurred a lot of financial costs (those co-pays add up quickly) in addition to the personal costs she's faced with this health crisis.

So, if you are so inclined you can either donate here or contact me at plumamelia@gmail.com and I can give you Kathleen's address. The two images below are a couple bookmark ink drawings that Kathleen did. I so wish she would become the art instructor where our children go to school. She would be perfect. At the very least I'm strongly pushing her towards starting an Etsy site.