Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie) Jul 2013

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 03:05 PM

For those of you not on Facebook, here's a glimpse of Kat, on the one occasion I got to meet her and hug her: Katlaughing and me at the Grand Junction train station.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: GUEST,Suzy T.
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 03:02 PM

End of an era. I never got to meet her in person, but I loved her - she provided some really important ballast to this site for a long time. RIP - a life well lived!
Suzy Thompson

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:48 PM

I heartily agree with all the many voices here who have expressed their loss and sadness. I can only say that in our few encounters she was a wonderful support. May she rest in piece, and to those left behind; she was one of the best.

RIP


Peter

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:48 PM

Oh. My. God. I can't believe it. No words.

I just popped my nose in the door for a quick peek at what was happening, and the world changed forever. It's not so bright as it was. Permanently. I just can't take in the fact that I'll never hear her voice in this forum again.

Dear, dear Kat. Rest in peace. Can't tell you how much you'll be missed.

Bonnie

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Bert
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:47 PM

Oh NO! Not my KATMELUV.

I was lucky enough to meet her a couple of times. She had that way of making you feel that you were her one special friend.

Love on its way to Rog and family.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Ernest
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:46 PM

My condolences to her family too.

Mudcat - and the woeld - will be poorer without her.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:45 PM

I just talked to Spaw, he is going to call. He talked to her last night. We are share a broken heart. She was a friend to everyone here.

My thoughts, prayers and sympathies to everyone.

We love you so Kat.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: voyager
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:43 PM

Mudcat -

Here are a few 'missing links' for katlaughing, writer, critic, humorist and Mudcat anchor -

Windwords of Wyoming

katlaughing author's website

Prairie Child (e-book)

voyager

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Morticia
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:41 PM

I am so sad and so sorry that this strange little community has lost it's glue. She was so kind and so welcoming with a heart as big as her dear kind soul. I will miss you, my friend.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: MBSLynne
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:35 PM

It's a long time since I've been on Mudcat but, having seen this news on Facebook I had to come on and share my sadness with everyone else. I hadn't 'spoken' to her for a long time due to my absence from the Cat but I remember her as a soft, gentle and caring person. May she be peaceful in the summerlands. My thoughts and sympathy to her family. Blessings to them and to her

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:33 PM

Oh. My. God.

This is bad news indeed. I can only hope that she's smiling down on all of us now.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Wesley S
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:32 PM

Very sad news indeed. She made us better.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:30 PM

A loss to us all.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: My guru always said
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:28 PM

Such sad news, such a shock!

Kat was a wise and gentle soul who I would have dearly loved to meet in person. She will be missed by so many here, she has left a legacy of Love.

My condolences to all Kat's family, keep the good memories.

Candle lit at Old Keepers.
Hil

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:17 PM

....and live on, in joy.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: GUEST,MikeL2
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:17 PM

Hi

Like others here I did not"know" Kat. But here presence here was felt and loved by all.

In life it is difficult to make friends. Kat was a special person who made friends like me who did not meet her but she made me feel as though we knew each other well.

May I offer my deepest respect and condolences.

Sadly missed,

Regards

Mike from across the pond

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:14 PM

It was 1999 when kat first posted here - actually, it was December 29, 1998. The record shows she posted 45,527 messages here. Almost from the moment she arrived, kat changed the character of Mudcat - she gave it heart. I often disagreed with that change, but I couldn't deny it - and gradually I came to be very glad that change took place.

Kat was so sick for so much of the time she was here - but she always seemed to get through it, and she always seemed to be able to keep her good spirit. It's hard to believe she didn't make it through this last illness. Her spirit was so strong.

She was a blessing to all of us. May she rest in peace.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Becca72
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:13 PM

There are no words.
I'm shocked and saddened by this news.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Dave Swan
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:09 PM

We've lost a big heart, a sweetie, a good soul.

Condolences to all.

D

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:08 PM

ClaireBear: "GfS, what a lovely thing to say. Thank you."

Because it's the Truth...
...and it is not up for debate.


Guest from Sanity

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 02:05 PM

Tears ... Kat was a real friend ... I can't believe this ... I am so sorry ...

heartbroken

Love you Kat

Dan

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:54 PM

So Sorry to hear that RIP Kat!......

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: ClaireBear
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:54 PM

GfS, what a lovely thing to say. Thank you.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: skarpi
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:53 PM

She will be greatly missed R.I.P dear Kat

I´ll see you in heaven

KV Skarpi Iceland .

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:50 PM

She has awoken from this bad dream here...she is free...and the part that we knew, in her, is still VERY much alive!!
I'll take a moment here.... one year ago, almost to the day, I underwent a quadruple bi-pass, was not expected to make it, and as matter of fact, had to be revived...but I remembered, the experience to 'the other side'...I have to likened it, to 'waking up from a bad dream'.
When I talked to the cardiologist about the whole thing, this is her exact quote, "You know, I know what you are saying..in the course of the many operations that I've performed, I've lost patients on the table, I mean they died..and some of them we were able to revive, and they ALL are saying the same thing that you're saying."

My reply: "You know, on this side, sometimes you meet people who it seems like you've known for a long time, like even before you've met them, and something just resonates from heart to heart within each other, well, that's ALL there is on the other side..it's like coming into this life, we suffer some sort of amnesia, and forget who, what and where it all really is, and we think that all there is, is what information we gather from our physical bodies..it's not that way..it's bigger than that, we're gotten used to being less, and then think its ALL...until you wake up, go home, ..you remember..it ALL comes back!"
My doctor: " I believe you, you've said it clearer, but that's what my patients who've been revived tell me."

Hey Kat, We'll see you later, you'll know us when we meet again..you might not remember where from, but your heart will know, and know, that we are really all One! Nothing else mattered.
Until then, I'll give your friends this message.


Guest from Sanity

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: jacqui.c
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:49 PM

Thank yo Morgan and Rue for letting us know this sad news. Kat was a lady that I would have liked to meet but who was a dear friend even just online. I have a beautiful necklace that she made for me, even more precious now.

Morgan - your grandmother was a very special lady and was so proud of you? You are so lucky to have had such a buddy. Hold onto the memory of time shared.

Love to you all. There will be many friends holding you in their thoughts right now.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Elmore
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:47 PM

A wonderful person who'll be missed here. So sorry

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Mooh
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:44 PM

So consistently thoughtful and kind, to me and to others. I'm so sorry we never met in person, but I'm also happy she made so many friends here.

She will be greatly missed.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:40 PM

RIP

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Barb'ry
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:39 PM

So sorry to hear of Kat's passing. May her family and all her friends have many cherished memories of her.
Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:32 PM

To all of Kat's family..

How wonderful to have been able to share your lives with such a lovely spirit as she had. She will be very, *very* much around you all for the rest of your lives and already she will be surrounded by many who have loved her earlier in her life, who have already passed on to the next part of their journey.

I feel Kat had a very deep Spiritual connection, not just to each of you and to many in here, but to those with whom she is now surrounded.

I know you will always be so proud of her and her Love for her family shone out in her words...and you can see how much she was loved in Mudcat.

You will never lose her Light or her Love.

Never, ever.

For now though, cry until there are no more tears left...and soon, when the time is right, you will feel the love from her in your hearts, for nothing could ever keep her away from you all.


With Love to Kat and to all of you.....

In The Light Of Love

I will send some Love up to the Stars for her tonight, over here in England.

Much love
Lizzie xx

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: billybob
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:31 PM

Such sad news, dear Kat we never met but your love and support here on Mudcat was treasured by us all, it will never be the same without you.

sending love to all her family and friends who were lucky enough to meet her and know her love.

Wendy xxxx

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Penny S.
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:28 PM

Morgan, thank you so much for thinking of us. And Rue, don't be concerned about using this way of letting us know. You have reached so many who have liked and respected Kat over the years. It's going to be so odd never to see her wise, kind and thoughtful contributions again. I'm thinking of you all.
Penny

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:25 PM

A great little sister. I miss her.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: open mike
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:21 PM

Her last post here was on July 13, and bless her heart, as often was the case she was concerned for others, and sharing her love!
blessed be....

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Will Fly
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:13 PM

It seems like only yesterday I was helping her out with the cover of her "Wind Words" book - very sad news indeed. I'm also in tears. RIP dearest Kat.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:13 PM

I never met kat, never spoke to her, and wouldn't have recognised her on the street, but losing her is like losing a family member. The mudcat just won't be the same. Kat was at the centre of this odd community. I'm grateful for her.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: open mike
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:11 PM

thank you , Brave Morgan , for thinking of us at this time,
and for posting this sad news. We are lucky to be in this
mudcat family together, and will always remember the
positive spirit and friendly, helpful ways of Kat Laughing.

I have some c.d.'s she sent with cowboy songs from her
father;s time...what a treasure! I will sing "Happy Trails"
for her!

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:09 PM

Very sad news. Like many others, I never met Kat but felt touched by her presence. She lives on in her writings, both here and elsewhere, and in all our memories.

DtG

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 01:01 PM

Such sad, sad news. Kat was so good to me when I was grieving. She was an instant friend- we both joined Mudcat around the same time, and I loved her always. I got to spend 20 minutes with her 4 years ago when she and Rog came to meet the train when Hunt and I were travelling West.

Just last night, right around 7 pm Mudcat time, I was thinking of her and the Cat and how little time I had been spending on the Cat lately, and how I probably should get back in touch before too late...

Go well, sweet Kat.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 12:55 PM

So sorry to hear this sad news ... Kat stood out, for so many wonderful reasons.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: GUEST,frug
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 12:53 PM

Stunned .... RIP Kat

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: RolyH
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 12:49 PM

Deepest sympathy. This place wont be the same.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: bradfordian
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 12:42 PM

A kindly ear, a good friendly soul.
We still have her voice, she made a contribution to the second series of Mudcat CDs (This Is Us) singing "Tha's not my Colorado"
Condolences to her family. Rest in peace Kat.

bradfordian

And thanke to Liz for posting on fb.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 12:31 PM

................I don't know what to say. *tears*

After all of her many problems, I had thought she was overcoming most of them. She will be missed by so many in so many ways. She wrote about her family and shared it with us. I am honored to have known her for all these years.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 12:12 PM

What can I say but repeat what's been said?   

What a shock.

And what a wonderful, wise, generous, well- informed, witty, talented, delightful woman she was.

I can't better the description given before:    "she was the cream of the crop here"

And will be terribly, terribly missed.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: LilyFestre
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 12:08 PM

:( Oh Kat!!!!!!!!

I have no words...

You will be greatly missed.

My deepest sympathies and love to your family.

:( :( :(



LuvYaLily

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: theleveller
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 12:08 PM

Oh that is such very sad news. She (along with Joe) was always the human and good-natured face of Mudcat, pouring oil on troubled waters. I hope no-one minds if I dedicate this poem to her, which she was once kind enough to say that she enjoyed:

Ghosts are different in the open country,
unconstrained by the memories of walls.
Here they have a lightness that combines
with the beauty of the rising or the setting sun
or in the gentle rain melt to liquid joy.

You will, I know, have felt their presence
the many times you've walked this way.
Perhaps you listened to the sighing wind,
playing antediluvian melodies with the trees,
or at half-imagined footsteps, turned around
to see who, with an almost-silent tread,
had crept behind you as you stood transfixed,
to whisper beautiful, enticing words
that, just indiscernible, you longed to hear again.

I know! For I have heard them, too.
Not torn from wraiths of long-lost chiefs
who, from their barrows' vantage, still survey
the beauty of the land they ruled;
these spirits are not embedded in the earth
but, nonetheless, they have a right of tenure here.

Nor do they cry with grief, or pain of things long past,
but murmur with a deep and pure pleasure
that they are free at last – whilst we,
whose souls remain ineffably attached to earth,
cannot yet follow where they lead,
into the very essence of this land,
to commune with trees and rooks and with the winds,
and fly, with soaring gulls, to unimagined heights,
or follow on silver-shadowed, moonstruck nights
to where fox and hare have secret shadow-trysts.

In wonder, you and I can only pass along this way,
bound to a world that they have gladly left;
for they are clouds across a blameless sky
and soar, delighted, closer to the sun.

RIP Kat.

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 12:08 PM

Shocked and saddened. And, like Micca, speechless and bereft. Hadn't talked with Kat on the phone for awhile, but will miss her so much, both here at Mudcat and in phone conversations.

Holding you, Roger, Morgan and Rue, tightly in our thoughts.

Linn (and Tom)

Subject: RE: Obit: For Katlaughing (aka: Kat / Latie)
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jul 13 - 12:07 PM

Thank you all very much. Morgan has been reading everyone's post. He was very concern and you were all one of his first thoughts.

Micca, Sinsull & Spaw ...I know she had be long time friends with all of you ... I'm sooo very sorry this was the only way I had to contact you with the news.

She loved the Mudcat and all of you. She wasn't able to go out much and you friends meant the world to her.

I'll be sure to like my Dad know to read the thread.

Thank you all,
Rue