Families Can Be Together Forever

Kathy Hardy Ricks

October 23, 1957-August 12, 2010

     Families Can Be Together Forever is the caption at the top of Ray and Kathy's blog.  Kathy has been fighting cancer for several years now.  She returned to her heavenly home around 9am this morning.  Her husband and 6 sons were all with her.  Their son Josh is getting married tomorrow and Kathy so badly wanted to be at his wedding.  Her liver had failed and the doctors were doing their best to get her stable enough for a quick trip to Utah.  It wasn't looking good though.  Ray wasn't planning on leaving her side to attend either if Kathy was too sick to go.  As my mother-in-law pointed out, the silver lining in this dark cloud is that Kathy is definitely going to be at the wedding tomorrow.  And Ray too, of course.
     The first time I met Kathy was at the first Hardy Family Reunion that I attended the summer of 2002.  Since then, I've only seen her a couple of times-the '06 and '08 reunions.  We weren't able to go this year because we had a brand new baby.  I was sad because I knew it was probably our last chance to see her.  Despite only meeting her a few times over the years, the girls and I have developed a deep love for Aunt Kathy (Daren of course, has always loved her).  Probably because she's the oldest and remembers the best, Natalee especially adores her Aunt Kathy.  She is the kind of woman that I strive to become and she has raised 6 sons to be strong, righteous men of the gospel. 
     A special memory I have of Kathy was from the time we were at the 2008 Hardy family reunion in Price, Utah.  We did a white elephant gift exchange so before the reunion, I took the girls to the dollar store to pick something out.  Natalee and Haylee both picked a plastic horse.  When we got to the reunion, Natalee got to be friends with Daren's cousin Misty's daughter, Emmalynn.  Emmalynn loves horses too.  When it came time for the gift exchange, Natalee fully intended to pick one of the horses.  Before it was her turn though, another child got the first horse.  Then, Emmalynn's turn came.  She opened the second horse.  She was so excited.  Natalee was devastated.  We told her that part of the game was that you could "steal" a gift that you liked from someone else.  She thought about it but she couldn't bring herself to do it.  I thought she was okay with it, then all of a sudden, the tears came pouring.  Emmalynn saw how sad Natalee was, and she took the horse over to her and gave it to her.  It was such a thoughtful thing for such a young child (I think they were 6 at the time).  But then after it was over, Emmalynn was feeling sad and was crying.  So we told Natalee that if she gave the horse back to Emmalynn, we could just get one when we got home.  So she gave it back.  Then Natalee was sad.  It was a terrible cycle. :)  Aunt Kathy was also very touched by their concern for each other.  She took both girls aside and gave them each a dollar so they could both get a horse from the dollar store when they got home from the reunion.  Natalee never forgot that.
     We will really miss you Aunt Kathy, and we are grateful to have been blessed to have you in our lives.