Monday, July 14, 2008

Katie Reider, 1978-2008

I found out that Katie Reider passed away this morning due to complications from her fight with cancer. While I'd only met Katie once, in 2006, I did have the pleasure of spending the better part of a day with her and her band taking photographs and just hanging out. She was truly a firecracker of a person and a performer, and I really felt fortunate to meet her and work with her. Here are a few of the many nice shots we got that day...

As her career took off, performances in the area seemed less frequent, and my schedule more hectic with frequent trips on weekends, so I never quite managed to get to see her perform again. Then I started hearing about her health problems, and before I knew it, she was so sick she'd stopped performing. I'd sent words of encouragement thinking she'd recover before long and resume performing. But that's not to be...

While it's tragic when someone like Katie passes, it also serves as a wake-up call to the rest of us that our time is short, and that friends often leave us too soon, and that we'll wish we'd made more time for the important people in our lives. This lesson tends to hit home, but as things return to normal, it's easy to get caught up again in the daily demands of life. I'm going to do my best not to let that happen this time.

Goodbye Katie, your remarkable life and talent will live on in your many fans, friends and family.

For more information, click here or here or visit the band website.

2 comments:

|ris said...

My heart goes out to Katie's loved ones. How tragic. Such a young age to die.
Also, such a coincidence as I was facing the exact same emotions today, when I found out a coworker had died on Sunday July 13, after her 2-year long battle with cancer. She was only 40, leaves behind two little boys, the same ages as mine. I just wanted to cry, drop everything I was doing, and run home to my kids and hug them, hug them, hug them. You are spot on in your assessment about cherishing the people who are truly important to you. All the rest is just peanuts compared to that. Unfortunately, it often times takes a tragedy for people to stop and think.

Lin said...

Too close. To darn close for comfort.