Kathryn F. Nofsinger

'A life, if one knows how to live it well, is long enough'

-Seneca The Elder, Greek philosopher

I met Kathryn around 2015. A keen and witty lady with curly white hair and living independently in her home. At the time, it astonished me how independent she was for her age. At some point I was in need of finding child care for my son, Hunter, which would be her step great grandson. I was, admittedly, worried at first. I didn't want to overwhelm her given her age or have my son be with someone he didn't know well and I wasn't sure what her style of child care was like.

I quickly found no worry was to be had. My son and her became fast friends. From letting him read a book to her dogs to helping him ride a bike for the first time with training wheels. It would be no shock there after that every visit I had him in Michigan was never truly a visit until he spent time with grandma. She didn't just spend time with him...she invested in him.

The thing that stuck with me was that she never had to or was ever obligated to love him as her own. It was a choice she made from the heart. That choice changed my life and my son's life. As time progressed I was blessed enough to be her grand son in law. I began to realize that the unconditional love she had for me and my son and later, her blood relative children that her grand daughter and I would be blessed with needed no requirements. She gave us love and it filled us with life and happiness.

It would take me until 3 weeks prior to her walk with God for me to work the gumption to tell her the thing I wish I would have told her a long time ago, "Kathryn, thank you for loving me and my son when you had no reason to. You took us as we were and loved us as if we were always yours and thank you for loving our family that you would share lineage with. No one has ever given me that amount of love and kindness as a stranger, and so for that, I love you, truly and deeply."

It would be of no surprise to you or I, given how I described her love that she looked at me and with no hesitation and with certainty in her voice, "I love you too, Justin."

I never was able to pay that love back with trying to fix her pellet stove, replace her toilet or all the other one off repairs I would do. I don't think I ever was able to pay her kindness or love back. But until I see her again, I'll do my best to pay it forward. I only hope now that I can take that very virtue and adopt it as my own to offer it to those that enter into my life as a way to remember her and to let her legacy carry on.

She truly lived a long life.
But most importantly...
she did more than live it well, she lived with love and that love endures.