Kristin Marie Caro

My heart aches deeply for your loss and my mind is full of wonderful memories of you and your family. You have been a blessing in my life and I only wish there was something more that I could do to help. You are in my prayers.

Carol & family, It’s been quite awhile since we have visited, but I wanted you to know how truly sorry I am to hear of your loss. May you be comforted to know that others are thinking of you and your family. Barbara L. Kice 8330 Huntington Wichita, KS 67206 681-0561

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Caro, I have so many fond memories of Kristin. When I heard this terrible news, I was so deeply saddened that we will not be able to have more. Kristin and I were close friends in our ‘coming of age’ years. We graduated from high school together a year early, then went on to pledge the same sorority at Wichita State. I always admired her for her poise, grace, intelligence, beauty, sense of humor and, perhaps most of all, her classiness. As a friend, Kristin was supportive, caring and a wise counsel. I am undoubtedly a better person for having known her. As powerful friendships sometimes do, ours subsided as our lives went in different directions. Kristin and I lost touch for several years, and I always missed her. But I was so fortunate to have seen her on her last birthday, thanks to our mutual friend Amy Affleck, when my husband and I were visiting family in Wichita. She was just as beautiful and smart and funny as I had always known her to be, and I am so very thankful for having been able to spend that brief evening with her last December. We had a great time. It is so hard to comprehend this tragedy. It has reminded me that although we may not speak to all our friends and loved ones regularly, we always carry them in our hearts, which ache to so terribly when we realize we will not be able to connect with them again. But even if grief fades over time, their memories remain an integral part of who we are. I cannot conceive of the unimaginable grief your family is enduring. But I hope it provides some measure of comfort to know what a tremendous impact your beautiful daughters life had on so many people, though it was far too short. With my deepest sympathy and warm aloha, Stacia Garlach 1973 10th Avenue Honolulu, HI 96816 P.S. Ive enclosed this little article I found 10 years ago and always cherished. It a great take on why people come in and out of our lives, and has been a comfort to me through the years. FRIENDS OF THE ROAD — Paula Spencer in Reader’s Digest, January 1997, p. 122 Why do friendships come and go? How does a once-bosom pal wind up erased from your address book? Is a friendship that fades away necessarily a bad thing? My first inkling that some friendships are meant to be fleeting came in my senior year in university. Friendships there had been especially intense. We’d bonded instantly and tightly, with meandering all-hours conversations about everything from the meaning of life to ‘What will we wear tonight?’ Once I came across a line that seemed to express my 21-year-old angst. It was from James Michener’s novel Centennial: ‘God, he wished he could ride forever with these men … but it could not be. Trails end, and companies of men fall apart.’ Of course! Some friendships are meant to be transitory. Like cowboys who had ridden herd together for vast distances, sharing dusty perils and round-the-campfire coffee, my university friends and I had come to the natural end of our path together. It was time to move on. Absurdly obvious, the idea was nevertheless enormously comforting. It had once seemed like a failure to me, to build a friendship only to have it squelched by sudden distance, either physical or emotional. You move across the country and struggle to replicate daily long walks with phone calls or letters. Or one of you has a baby, and the minutiae of changing nappies transforms the built-for-two bicycle into a lop-sided three-legged stool. And that’s OK. Because in addition to our friends of the heart — the traditional, everlasting ideal — life is rich with friends of the road who, like Michener’s cowpokes, herd with you for a particular stretch and no farther. These brief friendships are equally intense, equally necessary, equally worth treasuring as any other, and for the duration of the ride, you can’t survive without them.

I am so sorry for your loss. I went to high school with Kristin and she was in my graduating class. We were never close friends, but I remember how beautiful and vibrant she was. I hope that your good memories with her will comfort you at this time.

Frank, I am so sorry for your lose. I know she was the world to you and there is nothing I can say to make you feel better. All I can say is if you need a friend I will be there. If there is anything I can do for you and your wife please let me know. Again I am so very sorry, my thoughts are with you.

Dearest Frank and Carol, My heart breaks for you. I simply cannot fathom the pain and loss you are enduring. I know that you are two individuals who will pull together and rely on each other and God for the strength to carry you through. Kristin was such a joy to many. She was a warm, loving, delightful woman who was treasured and will be deeply missed. I know you have many wonderful memories of her that will always be a part of you. You can draw on those happy memories, as they will always be there for you to enjoy. Know that you are in my thoughts and prayers. Much love to you both, Jinx