From Amanda Plancon
How to spend the $250 emanating from our wonderful Kindness Club? While the idea of donating it to a random stranger was appealing, due to the cruelest of circumstances, we knew friends who were enduring the utmost pain – the loss of their beloved mother/wife this past January.
Many of you knew Kathleen K. personally, or if you didn’t, you heard of her, and her incredible battle against metastatic breast cancer. She was a miracle; for five long years she fought with every fibre of her being to resist her illness and defied the most incredible odds. She was a miracle too in how she transformed this community of River Forest and much further afield. Through her, a whole community of women in particular was forged, who were inspired by her, and who loved her deeply. It’s so hard to try and describe in a few words here all the ways she impacted so many peoples’ lives, and taught so many of us what really matters. Perhaps our most vivid memories of her will be her wicked sense of humor and the belly laughs it triggered all-around, the tight loving hugs she doled out, but most of all, the most incredible all-consuming and all-powerful love you could ever witness of a mother for her darling children, Niklas, Patrick and Liadain. Kathleen was the best. Her children and ever-strong husband Jochen, are the best.
The purpose of this Kindness Club was to bring a little happiness. We wanted to do something for the kids who have been through so much, and we ended up focusing on Liadain. A small gesture that we were able to provide for her was to use some of the money to enroll her in some fun afternoon classes involving art, nature and movement, for Kindergarteners at the River Forest Park District. She’s loved it. Annie Dwyer and Bekka Kieffer also very kindly made arrangements to do all the driving back and forth. The remaining monies were given to Jochen to use as he wished. One idea was to help Lia explore her budding love for gymnastics. After some back and forth with Jochen on that point, he decided he wanted to wait a little before going forward with that, so we’re hoping that we can make that happen for her in the fall. If you’re interested in helping, we’d love to hear from you.
Lastly, we want to take this opportunity to say how incredibly great this Club is. Mike and I feel so privileged to have met and made friends with people like yourselves who want to make a difference. Thanks from the bottom of our hearts for that gift. You inspire us.
The Plancons
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