We love you, KitKat.
We miss you.
Best friends forever. We promise.
We are both Northern Virginia natives and met through mutual friends on New Year’s Eve 2004. We started dating shortly after and were married on October 18, 2008. We settled in our beloved small town a year after we were married and a year later, learned we were expecting a baby.
That baby would be born on June 5, 2011 – five weeks early, with a head full of hair and looking exactly like her Grandad. Our lives changed in the blink of an eye and falling in love took on a whole new meaning.
When Kate was diagnosed with leukemia just after her 2nd birthday, our little family huddled together and hunkered down for the war ahead. We never could have expected the path that our lives would take; even knowing Kate was diagnosed as high risk, there was never anything but optimism from everyone – including her doctors.
Our “why” is obvious. Kate’s life was simply the greatest joy of ours. She is and always will be the very best thing that’s ever happened. Living without her is unbearable. The only way to survive this loss is to take every opportunity to tell her story: not just that of her death, but that of her life. By doing so, we aim to raise awareness about childhood cancer, raise funds for research and give back to the community and kids that Kate loved so much.