This Mortal Coil

[cathschaffstump]

This weekend, one of my former students, Katie Beckett, died at 34.

Why talk about this at all? Katie was certainly a gifted literature student, one of the best I had had. Her research papers went above and beyond, and her interpretations of texts were nuanced and complex. More importantly, as you read about Katie's life, you will see that she was an IMPORTANT PERSON (TM). There's a law named after her, and her life was in part that of a disability advocate.

I have talked about death here. I've always felt that my father did more harm than good in the world. And my father-in-law had the life he wanted, and left those he knew better than he found them. Katie was a normal person in extraordinary circumstances, and left a legacy to other hospitalized children around the country.

The last time I saw Katie, it was during a writing session I was having at Barnes and Noble during finals week. She robbed me of some of my writing time. I resented that a little. As good a student as Katie was, her new hope was to be a YA writer. She tried to get into a YA program twice, but she wasn't ready. I would go so far to say that Katie was a terrible writer of fiction. But there's a lesson in that too.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from Writer Tamago.