My search to locate KATH should have started sooner and been far more diligent. Over the past 20+ years, I randomly googled her name a number of times but never found any information to indicate that any of the persons popping up were actually her.
KATH was my best friend when I was a sophomore in college. She was a senior. Our relationship was never sexual but was definitely very emotionally intimate and intense. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to find her; to talk about what our relationship was, or meant, to HER. The other reason I wanted to know where to find her was to return “Tiger”, the stuffed animal KATH had given me one day when I was laying down on the rug in her room while suffering really awful menstrual cramps. She had placed “Tiger” in my arms saying that he would comfort me as he had comforted her over the years. This gift of “Tiger” further reinforced our commitment to each other.
Back in 1956, my family lived in an apartment in Rochester. Our next door neighbors were the Andersons: Jaime-Lyn was my age and her brother, who we called John-John, was several years younger but we all played together frequently. We were neighbors until 1958 when the Andersons decided to move to Syracuse. When Jaime-Lyn and John-John came over to say goodbye on moving day, John-John found “Timmy” in my room and was holding him tightly. “Timmy” is my teddy bear given to me by my grandmother when I was six months old. When Mrs. Anderson came by to tell her children it was time to get in their car and leave, John-John didn’t want to give “Timmy” up. I looked at Mrs. Anderson and nodded that it was okay for “Timmy” to go with John-John to Syracuse.
My parents stayed in touch with the Andersons and we went to Syracuse to visit them in 1960. During our visit, I started to “come down with something” as I had a 104 degree fever. Of course, my parents decided to cut our visit short and return home. As I was getting into our car, John-John came up to me, put “Timmy” in my arms and said “You need him now”. I slept next to “Timmy” in the back seat of our car all the way home!
One morning several years ago, my final Google search located KATH… well, located her 2018 obituary. No spouse, no partner was noted… not even a cherished pet.
That evening I was so grateful, as I continue to be today, to have both “Timmy” and “Tiger” to comfort me.
