We Lose a POWERHOUSE; and I’m Sad, So Deeply Sad. RIP Kitty.

I always LOVED this picture of Kitty. The microphone was always as symbolic as it was practical describing Kitty because if there was a person with a TRUE voice in the diabetes community; it was Kitty Castellini. Thousands of hours of broadcasts and tireless efforts in advocating for you, for me, for us in the diabetes community.

You can look around out there and read much of who Kitty was, the transplants she underwent, the pain she lived through……but there is much more about what Kitty did for others out there than what she went through herself. She shared her own story only in the context to show that she could and would live this life to the fullest, and so could anyone faced with this disease.

She would be the first to tell you that she was a proud Union Member. As many know, the Diabetes Research Institute has a great friend in the members of organized labor (North Americas Building Trade Unions) who organize the Dollars Against Diabetes (DADs) Day around each Father’s Day. Kitty would remind me often how she was involved in helping this cause years ago, and how proud she was to have participated. Her leaving us on Father’s Day, I’m sure, was Kitty doing it ‘her way’, so we are reminded for years to come.

She would call with an idea, an undertaking, or a possibility worth exploring. There was ways to get the word out there….and there was also Kitty’s way. Direct. Tireless. And with a warm smile. Kitty’s way was as unique as it was wonderful.

Kitty left us yesterday, her husband notified the world on Kitty’s FB page, after a long, long battle; but with the people she influenced, myself included, her voice will be heard for a long, long, time. Rest my dear Kitty. I think I speak on behalf of the entire diabetes community when I say…..thank you, we are surely a better diabetes community because you walked among us.