Katherine Ohlweiler

July 25 a memory popped up on my Facebook of Katherine and I. It had been 6 years since we saw eachother. I was in the process of planning what has become an almost annual get together with Morgaine, Kristen, and Jessica and I wanted to reach out to invite Katherine again this year. I didn’t get to send that text, but I wish I had.

I spent most of my teenage years wishing I could be Katherine. I’m sure I’m not the only one. And if you didn’t want to be Katherine, at the very least you wanted to be around her. She was just that magnetic! There was no way to be around Kat, her smile, her laugh, and not have fun. This absolutely breaks my heart, but it’s also amazing to see how many lives she touched and just how loved she is.

When I was growing up, Kat’s family and my family owned houses next to each other in the Catskills. I don’t remember a time before they were there, so a lot of my early memories of one of my favorite places involve hanging out with Kat and her family. Once when I was maybe 8, Lisa and Katherine (who was about a year older than me) decided they were going to open a lemonade stand and invited me to join. It turned out lemons were too expensive, which would have made me stop the whole endeavor, but Kat in her flexible way just said, ok, we’ll sell cups of cut watermelon instead. So, we hung signs up and down the valley and sold cups of watermelon at the end of their driveway. As adults, Kat would text each other when we were upstate to see if the other was around. I think the last time we crossed paths was at the swimming hole in the Woodland Creek. I’ll still think of her, and her whole family, every time I’m there.

Kat worked at a late night spot in my neighborhood that I really adored. Quickly, we became pretty good friends, and would often share in musical taste and console each other for issues we were working through in our lives. My blossoming friendship with Kat led to me becoming quite the regular, and one thing led to another. I now run the kitchen at that very watering hole. A friendship with her led to the me making a giant passionate, career exchange in my life. Everyday I get to practice in my joy and craft and everyday Kat is apart of it, because without her I wouldn’t be where I am today. All my love and remembrance.

This is devastating news and I send my love and condolences to the family. Katherine was my best friend growing up and I loved her and her family so much! I’ll never forget her because she was just that, unforgettable. Her laugh- I will never forget the way it sounds. Her smile was beautiful just like her. I’ll miss her a lot.