Caitlin left this earthly plane seven years ago. Seven years is impossible, as was two, as will be twenty.
What endures: her wisdom, her words, the good she continues to inspire.
The Caitlin O’Hara Community Health Clinic is saving lives. The Leo Project community programs are thriving, as is Jess – who just finished her first semester of her MPH program at Harvard, whilst also running the show in Kenya. 👏🏼 !
Nick is working on stone installations in her memory -hopefully to be shared with you in 2024.
I committed to returning to the novel I was writing during the transplant wait. I finished and plan to dedicate it to her memory. (She was its first reader, its best editor, and a fan. 🙂 )
During the years of that wait, when I often only had the time to write for 30 precious minutes a day, it was easy for writing to feel futile. Pointless. But one day I received a letter. It was from a reader of Cascade who, after finishing it, was moved to quit her job and commit to the painting career she’d dreamed of for years. Never underestimate the power of your art to change lives, she wrote. That letter kept me going during some dark times.
It’s easy to underestimate the positive influence each of us has on others, often without ever knowing about it. It’s a hard time on this planet right now but we can all do what feels good and right. I’ll leave us with Caitlin’s powerful last message:
“There is so much suffering in the world … so much. My belief though at least is – the world was not meant to always be fair or fun or easy. The world is teeming with life, and death, and pain, and Donald Trump even haha. We just have to keep living. Step back. We are just tiny beings. There are lobsters living at the bottom of the ocean for over a hundred years. They have just been sitting down there through all of our lives and wars and lives before us. We aren’t that much different from lobsters really if you pull back a little. All part of this teeming painful wonderful world where so much is just luck. But we can choose to be kind, and to keep trying — we have the power.”
Peace on earth, goodwill to all.
Maryanne ♥️
9 Lives Notes 