And when I pause to really think about them I can usually find something about our meeting that has taught me something, shaped me in some way, and something for which I can be thankful. Some I met for only seconds never to be seen again. Others were around a bit longer before fading away. Classmates, work colleagues, teachers, bosses, girlfriends. Some, of course, are more prominent, such as close friends and family.

I sometimes look at the people in my life like the characters in a very long play; characters that are merely in the background, characters that appear in certain scenes that may or may not come back later in the play, and some that have a leading role and have made an appearance in every scene for as long as I can remember. They are all a part of my story and I believe have made me the person I am today.

I knew Kathy for a short time a long time ago. She was a “media babe” (a term of affection used for the women who worked in the media department) at the first ad agency where I worked just after graduating college. Kathy, a majority of the staff and I were just a bunch of fresh-faced, naive kids having a lot fun when we weren’t stressing out from the low-paying, fast paced ego-driven business. I didn’t know her very well except to know that she was kind, and friendly and had a great sense of humor. She was tall, had smiling Irish eyes and was quite beautiful. The “media babe” moniker definitely applied. Put her in a big, chunky, white cable knit sweater and you would think she stepped right out of an Irish Spring soap commercial.

About four years ago I reconnected with her on Facebook. She was easily one of those people with whom you were happy to reconnect. It seemed to me that she hadn’t changed much at all. She was now married to a nice guy who I think I once met. She was the mother of a son and two daughters. At the time Kathy had just found out she had a rare blood cancer. She would begin to document her journey online through not one but two bone marrow transplants. Along the way I learned a lot, not only about Kathy, but her husband, her three kids, her mother and father, her siblings and a whole bunch of her friends. She was open and honest and funny and vulnerable. It was far more than I knew about her when we worked together.

And through it all I couldn’t help but think how absolutely wonderful and human this beautiful women was. She was far more beautiful on the inside than she was on the outside, which is saying a lot. When she wrote she did so with honesty and wit and correct grammar. For Facebook, the correct grammar alone made anything a worthy read. But it was so much more than that. She painted a picture with her words, she wrote her story in such a way that you thought you were right there with her. Good days and bad days alike.

She seemed to have beaten the cancer only to be stricken with a brain tumor. She was angry. She was humble. She wasn’t comfortable when people called her a hero. I think to her the long fight wasn’t so much heroic as much as simply a choice. She had hope and wanted to live. I think she had incredible patience and perseverance. I think she was courageous. And she had a perspective that we should always have but often lose sight of, to be thankful for every day.

I’m thankful that we reconnected. I’m thankful she allowed me to witness her journey. I’m thankful that she was a recurring character in my life. I’m thankful for Kathy.