Katelynn Jasmine Vessels was born on September 18, 1998 and died July, 27, 2015. Katelynn was my best friend, my other half, my girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, husband. She’s my sister, not by blood but by soul; half of my heart and everything in between. Katelynn was the epitome of a fighter. If you went up to her and had a simple conversation with her, you would never think anything negatively about her life at home. She went through the saddest things but never let that affect the people who made her happy. What made her even more special is that she wasn’t one to complain. She constantly had people on her back, she constantly had people bringing her down and judging her. Telling her how to run her life. Even still she never let it stop her from living her life. Now that I look back, I feel awful for all the things that I would talk to her about because I feel like I sounded ungrateful. The things I thought I was going through couldn’t compare even the slightest to what she went through. Things got worse for her when she found out she was pregnant only at age 16. Of course finding out a loved one is pregnant at such a young age is disappointing to hear, however I made it my priority to make sure that I supported her because that was something that she needed the most. She carried the baby for about 6 months until a tragedy happened which caused her to lose baby Adrienne on June 3, 2015. Her reaction to the death of her baby was devastating. Katelynn was in the hospital for about 3 weeks then was instructed to go to a depression center to make sure she was taking care of herself physically and mentally. During these situations, a child wants their mother there the most, no matter what kind of relationship you may have, you always want your mom right there by your side. And she didn’t have that. Watching her go through that breaks my heart everyday. It was so important that I returned all the favors she's done for me. When a person doesn’t understand why things are happening, they start to blame it all on themselves. And that’s exactly what she did. She blamed herself for why her father left, she blamed herself for why she thought her mother hated her, she blamed herself for why her boyfriend of 3 years hadn’t visit her the entire 2 months of her being in the hospital, and lastly she blamed herself for the lost of her child. Her exact words were “I refuse to continue living my life in this terrible way.” At that moment, she became a person who I was unfamiliar with. To me, those were just words of her grieving. But to her, those were the words that made her decide to take her own life just a few days later.
When she was alive, I would always tell her that I didn’t know what I’d do without her and now that she’s gone, I really don’t know how i’m doing it. I guess it’s because I don’t have any other choice. I can’t say that it has been easy learning to live without her. I’ve come to the understanding that when I go to her house, it won’t ever be her who opens the door, or when I call her phone number, it’ll still just be her voicemail. I decided to create my sugar skull in remembrance of her because what I have learned is that Dia de los Muertos is for celebrating a person’s life not dwelling on the fact that they passed. I feel as though she deserves to be celebrated because I know that’s something she would do. She was such a joyful person, she would want me to remember her as an inspiration and i’m trying my hardest to keep that in mind. I truly want all of my words that I used to describe her to give off nothing but good vibes to people. And in the end, that’s really all I want for her, is for people to accept and respect her. I made my sugar skull to reflect Katelynn by painting the entire thing yellow. I chose yellow not because it was her favorite color but because yellow represents happiness and like I mentioned before that was an instant vibe that you got from her. I also chose to include red as a representation of strength. And lastly, I put glitter over the yellow for a super special reason. I think the glitter represents a covering for what’s on the bottom. If you think about it, when someone shows you something sparkly, you don’t think to ask what’s under it; all you see is that it’s sparkling and you like it. Katelynn put “glitter” on herself so that all you see is something pretty, she didn’t want people to know what’s really under it. She hated when people felt bad for her. She just wanted people to see her as your typically happy teenage girl.
Dia de los Muertos has opened up my mind to celebrating the passed loved ones because all the people whose deaths we care about i’m sure just want us to be happy. And this holiday isn’t about being sad. It’s about remembering all the good times that you have shared with that person. You think about how much joy you guys brought to each other. When someone you love and care about passes away, there is a strong temptation to remember them. Misdeeds are forgotten, offenses are forgiven. The hardest part of her passing is that I don’t feel like I told her I loved her enough. I use to blame myself and say “well maybe if i said it once more, that’s another day she’d be here” And I’d give anything to turn back time to do so. People say all great minds think alike. But I like to say all great hearts share a bond. And at the end of the day, she may be gone but our connection will remain unbroken.
Origen:
Ella nació en la Estados Unidos
Ella esta de Chesterfield Missouri
Katelynn asistió Hollenbeck mitad escuela
fuimos a Archbishop ryan para de la preparatoria.
Ella fue dieciseis anos
Mi hermana esta Afroamericano y somalí de su madre
Ella fue dominicana de su padre
Katelynn fue cinco pies, cuatro pulgada
Mi hermana esta musulman
Mi hermana fue alegre
Ella fue extremadamente confiable y muy amable
Ella amado a comló
Katelynn’s favorita color fue verde
Ella gusta de baile
Yo soy en Filadelfia
Yo esforzarse por a guardo a positiva y acordarse bien memoria
Yo soy triste y emotiva
Yo soy afligido
Mi mensaje a su es:
Eres el mejor hermana del mundo
Gracias por estar siempre ahí cuando te necesito
Estoy muy orgulloso/a por tener un padre como tu
Siempre estás en mi mente
Te quiero mucho
