Thursday I received a phone call from my brother. My cell phone is never where I am, I like to think that I get extra exercise if I leave it in the other room. It was about 9:30 Thursday night when Hester brought me my phone and said I had a missed call. With out checking my voice mail I just call my brother, Troy, back. Of course, during this time I was involved in a hairy shootout somewhere in the snowy German countryside, trying to take back that damn bridge we lost. So, while I was waiting for my brother to answer the phone I figured I’d hang back and try to cover my comrades as they made another attempt to capture an outpost.

When my brother answered, I had the feeling that something bad had happened. I immediately thought it was my mom. He was very calm, and just had a sterile sounding voice. I said “What’s up?”, my usual response to everything. “Katy drowned in the pond.” he said “We’re at Saint Mary’s in West Palm, she’s stable now…” I didn’t know what to say or do, my heart stopped beating, I think I didn’t respond right away, I guess I was trying to review what he had just told me to make sure I heard it right. My eyes began to tear up and I asked “How is she?” I don’t remember what was said after that.

I told my Brother to make sure he and his wife got some rest and that I would pray for Katy and them. I honestly didn’t know what else to say or do, I was 4 hours away. I wanted to go there right away, and I don’t know why I didn’t. I talked with Hester and we decided to go after she got off of work on Friday. I just kept thinking to myself, “she’s stable…” that’s a good thing. I called Troy again Friday morning, they were going to run some tests to check brain activity, at least that’s what I understood. At this time, I assumed that everyone was trying to talk to him and call him so I just told him if he needed anything at all, to call me because I didn’t want to bother him. So, Friday at about 3:30PM we got on the road to go down to Saint Mary’s in West Palm, it’s about a 4 hour drive for us. As we were going across the skyway bridge I had Hester call Troy to let him know we were on our way, by this time it was about 4:15 or so. She was talking to him a little and I didn’t hear exactly what she had said to him. And then she passed the phone to me.

I told him we were on our way down, and was there anything he needed. He said something to the effect of, “…we’re on our way back home now, we’re going to get the camper and…” When he said that, I immediately though, get the camper and go back down to the Hospital. However, I caught what he actually said caught up with me. He wasn’t going back to the hospital.

“What happened?” I asked, he then realized I didn’t know. “Katy died at 3:30″ he said. His baby girl, little Katy Bug had died less than an hour ago. Again, I felt completely helpless. I felt horrible, here I was 4 hours away and didn’t even get to say goodbye to my niece who I saw so little of. At that point, I kept thinking over and over again that I should have left sooner, I should have gone that night but I didn’t. Time is one of those things you take for granted, until you have none, then you wonder where it went. We love you Katy bug, and you will always be in our hearts.

- Uncle Bill and Aunt Hester

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