Monday, November 4, 2019
I shared this on my Facebook page: My childhood friend, Kathy Kathleen Knox, is an incredible force. Born with a disease that left her blind by the time she was in 9th grade, when I met her, she was already destined to touch deeply the hearts and minds of those she came in contact with. As schoolmates, our job was to walk her to her class and carry her books as she held on to our elbow and used her cane. She would give us grief if we turned a corner too fast, or forgot her books, always in the most hilarious and humorous way. When she got her first Braille computer to type her notes I remember being jealous of how cool it was. Kathy would let us type “sentences” and then would read back what we created to great laughter from our gaggle of girls. She’d often throw in a salty word or two to our great pleasure-especially in our small, girls school. Soon after she became completely blind, her mother passed away from breast cancer. I remember singing in our school choir at the funeral and watching Kathy, how strong and beautiful she looked, probably sensing all the eyes on her. Her father was this smiling, constant force at the school and she adored him. Kathy was brilliant, too. I would tease her that if there was anyone I would cheat off of it would be her if she could just stop writing in dots. She went to Amherst College and excelled-of course. I lost touch after College but caught up a few years back. We have popped up with comments and responses to each other’s feeds on Facebook. Her hysterical take on politics, life, her setbacks and people, peppered now with even saltier words, always made me laugh. I read her stories hearing her very distinct and powerful voice. She had incredible wit and a tongue that could slice through BS like a laser-there never was any pretending or false accolades or friendship with Kathy. She was an advocate for herself, independent despite her legally blind status and health issues, a feminist in the best and truest sense, a fashion maven and an individual that had a profound effect on me at a young age.
I have so often told my children about her as an example of courage and how to be an intelligent, fierce woman. I always start it with the story of a game Kathy invented called the blind leading the blind where she would have us close our eyes and take her arm and she’d lead us to class. Her raucous laughter when we hit a wall or bumped into a table was everything-she knew exactly where she was leading us. As she brings joy to heaven now, I am grateful for every wall I ever bumped into because of her, for the forever sound of her laughter and wise insight, especially as a young girl, and for her wit and mutual cheering on once we were adult women... I would follow her lead anywhere. Bless you, Kathy.
