We are so sorry for you and your family.

Love,
Jackie Madden

I am so sorry about your loss. I have very fond memories of Aunt Kathy and will always remember her as kind, fun loving, and a joy to be around. You are all in my thoughts and prayers as you go through this very difficult time.

Love,

Irene

You always wore a big smile and brought a lot of sunshine to Yellow Freight. Your family and all your friends will certainly miss you and one day we will see you on the other side.

Dick, my heart goes out to you. I know what you are feeling at this time and no amount of words can stop the aching in your heart at the loss of Kathy. If I can help in any way, please don’t hesitate to call me.

Dick Collis

I am deeply sorry to hear Aunt Kathy has passed. I know all of you will miss her. She was such a loving and thoughtful person. So warm and caring. I will always cherish the times and chats she and I shared, whether here in Michigan or in Az. when I could get out there. We had great discussions related to women in the labor movement, She was a staunch union supporter. More importantly, she loved her family and would have done anything for any one of you. I feel terrible that I will not be there with all of you on Saturday. However, I will be there in spirit and I am sending my love to surround all of you as you share your memories and move through this most difficult time in your lives. Support each other and allow our God to shower you with His unfaltering love and protection. Find peace in your wonderful memories of the beautiful person Aunt Kathy was. Heaven is lucky to have her. I love all of you.

Susan (Niece/Cousin)

And she was no different the last time I saw her, in late February, when her mother’s decline had quietly wreaked havoc on Kathy both emotionally and physically. Her devotion to her mother not just at the end, but throughout her life, is without equal in all my years of experience.

Kathy even saved my life once! Both sides of my family– the Snyders and the Rays– lived in Nebraska City at the same time.
Grandma and Granddad Ray lived in a duplex at the end of the main street, just before it took a steep decline straight downwards to the Missouri River.

Well, for some reason unexplainable by the best of minds, my two sisters and my brother, as well as David and Kathy, had packed ourselves into the family car perched at the top of this steep hill. And, while I’m pointing no finger, being hardly innocent myself,
David was the closest to the emergency brake when it was suddenly released, and the car started rolling backwards toward the Big Muddy and our watery and tragically young demise.

We all realized the implications of our immediate situation and reacted by SCREAMING and PANICKING.

But Kathy, who had been sitting in the backseat, nonchalantly doing her nails, quickly and quietly sprang into action, jumping over the front seat while the car was in backward motion, and successfully pulling the brake back on, saving all of our tiny butts, (just, in my case, anyway, to grow to huge adult proportions).

She didn’t yell at us or even say a word. All in a day’s work for a wonderful cousin, mature beyond her years.

Kathy and her mother, my Aunt Kate, were so alike, yet so different in important ways, then so alike again at the end.

The difference between them, I think, was in Kathy’s high level of maturity. It’s as if she realized early on that it was her mother who needed mothering, and although it was never easy, and often downright impossible, Kathy always stepped up to the plate, taking more than a few errant pitches in the process.

In short, Kathy was always there for her mother, much of the time to her own detriment. Aunt Kate wasn’t perfect, and Kathy understood that none of us are. Her love was of the purest, unconditional type.

Some might conclude that Aunt Kate didn’t deserve such a devoted daughter, but I don’t think that’s something one would dare say to Kathy herself.

With Kathy’s passing, the world has lost a rare and priceless gem. And Heaven has gained a new Angel.

I can’t believe you’re gone so soon, Kath, and it’s now all just precious, and precious few, memories. But I will keep each and every one of them close to my heart, always.

We all hope to leave behind something in this world that we’re remembered for. What you’ve left us with is an extraordinary, indelible kindness of heart for others even while your own heart was breaking.

For myself, Robin Ray, and Aunt Gret and Uncle Jess, and Cousins Jeff and Randy, Thank you, Kathy, for having graced our lives.

You were a truly class act.