Sunday, December 16, 2007

Mourning Kate

A year ago a friend of mine died and I'm remembering her today.

Okay, she wasn't truly a friend of mine because I never met her face to face. But I feel like I know her because she read my favorite author's books to me all the time. Her name was Kate Fleming and she was a brilliant, award-winning audio book narrator.

She also just happened to be a lesbian.

The only reason that's significant for me to add (because, quite frankly, it's none of my business or yours) is because her partner, Charlene Strong, was nearly denied the right to say goodbye to Kate. And that really makes me mad.

Kate's death was horrible and tragic enough--she and Charlene did not need the added stress of red-tape, bureaucratic B.S. on top of it. Luckily the hospital staff was able to reach Kate's family in time to let Charlene in. No matter where you stand on the whole same sex marriage issue, it's just plain wrong for someone to die alone while the person they love more than anyone else in the world stands crying on the outside of the room.

Just plain wrong.



2 comments:

master chief said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Pat Collier said...

I absolutly agree with that. I did something right when raising you. Too bad it didn't rub off on your brother too. BTW Your Nanny & Paw Paw don't have a problem with it either. Neither does Dad or CO Grama. So us older people are sooooo with it!