My relationship with my niece Kathryn Ann (Pollard) Wright who passed away on 24 May 2016 (aged 32 years) after battling with breast cancer, was in text. I had numerous conversations with her over the years via email and facebook chat, and was able to, with the best of my ability and relying heavily on my own personal perspective of the past, provide her with answers to the many questions she had about the grandmother she had never met. The grandmother being my mother, the woman I lived with for the first five years of my life and then again for one year when I was twelve years old.
The conversations between Kathryn and I: her interrogative questions; my measured responses (bearing in mind the impact that may occur by revealing family secrets) were revealing and intimate and fulfilled in part her desire to feel connected beyond her immediate family and friends. I have to say that I admired Kathryn's ability to remain strong throughout her battle with chemotherapy and cancer, but what I admire even more was her quest for knowledge about family and kinship and her ability to honor and understand those (including myself) who have held the place of 'outsider in the family'. She referred to me as a 'free spirit' and I suppose I am a nonconformist, but she too fell into that category for she held fast to her desire to comprehend the web of relationships that bind us all and by doing so went some way towards bringing me back into the fold.
She was much loved by her husband, her family and those who knew her and will be sadly missed.
Vale Kathryn, it was an honor to know you.
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