One of the Toughest Days of My Life

Saturday April 19, 2008 was probably one of the most difficult days in my life. I attended a funeral for a wonderful young lady, Kimberly Dawn Heacox Hamilton. She was only 27 years old, the youngest person’s funeral I have ever attended. I consider myself lucky in that I have not lost many people who are dear to me.

I remember the first day that I met Kimmie. She and her parents were soon to be our new neighbors. We sat on what would be our back porch and got to know each other. She had so much energy and spunk, and definitely not shy! Not long after we moved in her parents let us know that she had CF. I had never really known much about the disease, until they became like family to us. At that time they explained that her life expectancy would be that of a teenager. Oh how my heart broke with those words. I still remember thinking, how am I going to be able to handle the loss or someone so precious and young.

I was very thankful when we found out that they extended her life expectancy. As a teenager, she would go with my family to the beach and help me take care of my two young girls. We had such a wonderful time and memories that will never be forgotten. It gave my husband ant I the experience we were going to need when our girls became teenagers.

We all celebrated Kimmie’s 16th birthday together. She had a group of friends over and they played a number of silly games. We had a blast. As I look back at the person Kimmie was it amazes me. A teenager having us “old people” at her birthday party! Now that doesn’t happen too often. But we were all family. I can picture her smiling and laughing and just being Kimmie.

The sometimes rebellious girl decided to move up North! Oh my, that was very hard for her entire family, but she was determined to live her life as she wanted. She was forced to have many stays in the hospital, which would tear our hearts out, but she handled everything with determination and fight.

Kimmie, you will be dearly missed by so many people of all ages. You had the personality to make everyone feel they were loved and wanted in your life. Your strength, fight, and caring will live in our hearts forever.

Love you!