(no subject)

[katekat]

This is Kelly. She's an old friend of mine who died last night after a year's struggle with some fairly large and debilitating medical problems. Kelly was a Sacramento girl through and through - funny, generous, down to earth, and the life of the party.

When I first met her I was intimidated - she was best friends with my then-boyfriend's previous girlfriend, the woman he'd almost married, and I assumed the two of them, both beautiful, sparkling, and thinner than me, were going to judge me and hate me on sight. But Kelly didn't. Instead she became someone I genuinely looked forward to seeing every time we traveled to Sacto, someone who would drive down with her sister to LA at the drop of a hat, with a smile and a will to party.

When Ryan, my then-boyfriend's best friend, came to live with us while he found a job in LA, I got the chance to see a lot more of Kelly (she and Ryan had an on again off again we're always friends kind of relationship) - we had so much fun together, took road trips, went to weddings, watched movies, partied - every time I saw her she reminded me that I wasn't a dead fuddy duddy but someone who could turn on some music and run around and have a grand time. She lived life like a fire cracker.

Eventually Ryan decided to move back to Sacramento, and after the ex and I broke up I pretty much only kept in touch with both of them through Kelly, who actually kept a facebook. They got married a couple of years ago - set up a house together and adopted cats and although they settled in, I don't think they ever settled down.

About a year ago Kelly started having medical troubles - loss of feeling in her fingers and feet, and trouble walking. She was diagnosed with a fairly rare disease and she had to take off work and spend time at the hospital, then time at home, because she wasn't physically up to much else. Ryan took great care of her, and actually over this last month she'd been slowly in the process of returning to work part time - it seemed like she was getting a handle on what was happening and was moving forward. But three days ago she had some kind of a major liver or kidney failure and was back in the hospital. She didn't return home. Last night she passed away.

M called me this morning to tell me what had happened - we all got notified over facebook from Kelly's little sister (they were best friends as well as sisters). M and I were both sad, but a little removed. Kelly was someone we'd both been close to, but hadn't seen in the every day for years. She's someone we're sad isn't in the world anymore. We both want to reach out to Ryan, to give him support, but he's the worst communicator ever even during the good times. I've got his number and I'll be calling him in the next week or so.

There are many lights in the world, and Kelly was one of the amazing ones. The world is a little darker place now that her light has gone out.