Tribute to Katelyn Reichert

Dear friends and fans,

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post. I want to tell you all that a dear friend I met years ago on the blind mental health list on groups.io has sadly passed away with no supports, no real place to call home, and no real family who cared enough about her. She was a dear friend to myself and my fiance, and I wonder if she was murdered. Katelyn’s death was awful to report, and I remember with great joy the last time I spoke with her. She had such a beautiful sense of humor, and she showed me weird videos on YouTube. She had shown me what life was, and it is she who inspires me to revolutionize even more. Katelyn will be surely missed, and I plan to cut a track in her honor because she was this important to me. She deserves a track for her because I tried my best to save her sanity, but couldn’t. Katelyn’s life was difficult, but her father and mother seemed to be some of the few who cared. I was introduced to a friend who shares her middle name. Katelyn was so sweet, and the last I checked, she’d had an Android phone. She had plans for her future, living independently. Who knew what happened to her!

Dear Katelyn,

I miss your sense of humor in the time I needed most,

Now I write this thinking that all you became was a ghost,

You didn’t seem to have a lot of friends, but you meant to lot to me,

You were all I really cared about, and though you couldn’t see,

I stayed your friend and even though we had a falling out,

Now that you’re gone, I want to cry, sob, scream, and shout.

Katie, I miss you terribly, it torments me mentally, you left me with a void,

I remember we talked about things like your living space and Android.

Trenton will miss you too, girl, that’s not a practical joke,

And you truly deserve better than the broken wheel spoke.

I wish we had more time to speak and laugh and even cry,

You had a funny laugh, oh Katie, why’d you have to die?

Where’d you go so soon? You just up and disappeared!

Now I lost another friend, and you met your end in a way I often feared.

Rest in peace, my sister, the revolution is yours,

And may one day come when we meet, life is ours, mine, and ours.

Beth Taurasi