Saying Goodbye to My First Follower

Missing Kathy Kidd, my first follower...it's her birthday today (April 3).

We first started to correspond when Kathy was doing Meridian Magazine's "Circle of Sisters," a forum where someone would write in a question they wanted to put to the readers and anyone was welcome to respond.  I wrote in a few times; the first time nothing happened, but the second time--which I would agree my contribution had more substance--I got an email that my words would run.  The anticipation of waiting for Monday to see if it would actually happen, and what other ideas and responses would be offered up.  I wrote a brief note and got a response.  After a bit, she gave me her personal email and suggested that I was free to use that, because the contact for the forum was something she only opened weekly to set up the posting for the week.  She was sick and at home just then, which opened a window of attention.

I ended up writing in a number of times for "Circle of Sisters", including more of the story or background, not to include for publication, and writing personal notes in between.  It was always exciting to see her name in bold in my inbox.  She started a blog, where she wrote every weekday, until her very serious medical crisis; after that it was weekly.  By then the Nauvoo Times was going, and her weekly blog post and Nauvoo Times column were one and the same.

after recovering, mostly, from her coma crisis  (from PlanetKathy)

This is the picture that Meridian Magazine ran, from when she worked for them as an associate editor.  It's also the picture her beloved Clark chose for her funeral service program.  He put the entire program and transcripts of the talks (including his own remarks) online for those of us who were unable to attend because of distance, and I'm grateful he did.  There were some pretty funny stories.

I'll have to tell mine tomorrow, of how our lives crossed.  How she got me started writing for other people to read.