"Katy never specifically talked to me about dying, but this is what happened right before she passed away," begins Kristin Long Barry, years after her 12-year-old sister lost her two-year battle with pediatric colon cancer.
My mom was with her early that morning and she was lying there and suddenly shot up in bed. She said: "Mommy, the doves just touched me! I see Jesus and He wants me to go with him!"
My mom said Katy was scared to leave all of us. But when my mom told her it was OK and to go, she laid back down and died.
If that story – or the touching photo of the siblings, with young Katy giving a full-tooth grin – doesn't make you want to do something for a similar family in need, Kristin has some firsthand advice on what you can do for other families whose children have had cancer. In a Facebook post shared by KTVU anchor Frank Somerville, she explains how she was a week shy of her ninth-grade graduation at the time of her younger sister's death and remembers the acts of kindness that truly made a difference.