Important update: Please click here Memorial Balloon Release
It was a bitterly cold December day that Kathy walked out of her home, leaving her family and friends behind. She died alone in a park near St. Louis, MO. Her death comes not from murder or a car accident but from a mental illness that some dismiss as nothing and others are unaware at how brutal it can be. Kathy died at the hands of an ongoing battle with PPD- Post Partum Depression.
Those of us who knew her, never would have guessed that she was so close to the end. Before Christmas she was full of life, so vital and happy or so she seemed. She talked endlessly about what she had bought the girls, her struggles to wrap them perfectly while chasing a 2-year-old and trying to put off the over-zealous request to help from her 9-year-old. The stories she conjured where of a happy woman, a woman in love with life, her children and her husband. We never dreamed that Kathy's world was falling apart.
Kathy had a history of PPD. Her pregnancy 2 years ago was the first time out of 4 pregnancies that it had manifested. She openly admitted more than once she had come close to taking her own life. She would tell us that her husband and her doctor pulled her out of the darkness.
My understanding is that she never stopped taking medication to prevent the PPD side-effects. Once she was on the right medication she was able to love her baby and life again. She loved Sydney and the babyhood so much that she willingly said she wanted yet another baby.
Kathy discovered she was pregnant a little quicker than she had anticipated. She stopped taking the PPD medication that she was on but at 18 weeks found that Ante-partum depression and some of her Obsessive-Compulsive tendencies were returning and it scared her. She quickly started taking a pregnancy safe medication to treat her problems. There was no more mention of depression after that. Kathy in her own words was happy. Even after Rickie Marie was born she remarked about how she thought she might have managed to escape the hell that she had lived in when Sydney was born. We all were thrilled for her.
Sadly, something wasn't right. After Christmas she became sad and non-talkative. She didn't post on the egroups as she normally did and seemed down to those around her. But no one even guessed to the extent of Kathy's unhappiness, maybe not even Kathy herself.
On December 27th, 2000 Kathy walked out of her home after removing her makeup and jewelry. She never was without them, those things were part of what made Kathy.... Kathy. She walked to a park several miles away and left the pain of her mental battle behind
Kathy leaves to mourn Rick, her husband, Bob, Jackie, Whitney, Sydney and Rickie Marie, her parents and a host of other relatives. She also leaves to mourn her loss probably thousands of women whose lives she touched.
Those of us who she shared her story with know that one thing Kathy wanted dearly was to tell women about PPD, to help them find their way through the darkness. In Kathy's memory I would like for each and everyone of you who reads this to please learn all you can on Post Partum Depression. It can strike any mother young or mature after birth. The only true defense you will have is knowledge and even then it sometimes isn't enough. In the coming weeks, I will be trying to add links to this site for PPD. So if you find anything that you think will be of service please send it to me.
Kathy Woltman Memorial Fund Information
Below you will find a guestbook. This will be our online memorial to Kathy and her family.
Lori A. Stephenson
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Tributes
Kathy's Memorial with Rick's Memorial Letter
Lori's Memorial to Kathy
Tomorrow will come and there will be no you.
It's hard to think that your sun has set and all that is left is the beauty of who you were.
I see you in colors:
Red,
Pink,
Peach,
Yellow,
Orange....
Dazzling beauty now sinking beyond the horizon to rise no more.
Life is not fair. I want you back. I want to turn back time and know your joy once more. I can't. All that is left is the memories of a beautiful rose that faded all too soon.
Love,
Lori Stephenson
Who'll never forget
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