4 months after diagnosis. She was 25 years old.
As you can imagine we all were devastated. No
one could believe that it all happened so fast.
There was no time for "getting used" to the idea
that death was a possibility, it just happened. She
died on Sunday afternoon August 31, 1997, at 4:20.
Her two sisters, my dear friend who had known
Kelly since she was 3 years old, and myself were
with her when she died. We were all holding her
and telling her we loved her. It was the saddest
day of my life.
The funeral was Sept. 4, at 7pm. On that afternoon
the funeral director came by my house to pick up
some of the flowers that had been sent to my house
to take them to the church. Some of Kelly's friends
arrived at the same time. They were bringing food
for an open house after the service. There was a
lot of confusion and people in and out of the house.
The front door was left open while all of this was
going on.
We all noticed at about the same time a butterfly that
had flown into the house...it was beautiful...black with
yellow stripes on its wings. It flew right to a spot on the
ceiling between the kitchen and family room. This was
probably around 2:00 in the afternoon. We all looked
at it and discussed how odd it was that it would have
flown into the house...we have lived in this house for
13 years and I can't ever remember a butterfly having
flown into the house. We continued bringing things in
and out of the house.
When everyone was finished they all left. We all did
whatever we did after that, (most of that week is a blur).
Around 6:30 the limos came to pick us up to go to the
church...we noticed that the butterfly was still in the
same spot.
We came back to the house around 8:30. The butterfly
was still in the same spot! There were about 30 to 40
people in the house, everyone commented on the butterfly.
Everyone agreed it had to be Kelly's spirit. We all agreed
that she was letting us all know that she was OK.
By 1am everyone had gone and I was cleaning up. I
asked my son Mark to try to "shue" the butterfly outside
so it wouldn't die in the house. It was still in the same
place it had been since it came into the house almost
12 hours earlier. He went over to it and tried to get it
down by waving his arm at it. The butterfly flew into a
window at the front of the house, Mark walked over
to the window and put his hand out to catch it in his
hand, but the butterfly flew right onto his finger. He
walked about 20 yards to the front door with it just
sitting on his finger...he opened the door and walked
outside, put his hand in the air and the butterfly flew
away.
Since that time there have been other "odd butterfly
happenings." I've seen them at odd times of the day,
almost right in my face.
Kelly's sister Ashley went to the cemetery on the one
year anniversary of Kelly's death. She was talking to
Kelly and crying, asking her to give her some kind of
a sign that she is OK. Ashley said as she was driving
away from the cemetery a butterfly flew right past the
windshield of her car, she drove a little farther and
another butterfly flew by. I truly believe that was her
"sign" to Ashley and to us all.
We all love you Kelly and now see you in every butterfly
we see
How does one become a butterfly?...You have to want to
fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar
Trina Paulas
May everyone who has suffered a loss like this find Peace.
Fly On Back