Tuesday, April 7, A.D. 2009

Katie Kirkpatrick Godwin

My mother tends to send those annoying, melodramatic “forwards” to her friends and family. You know them—they always include some morality lesson such as count your blessings, live each day to the fullest, and cherish your loved ones. They always end with some saccharine prayer to Jesus and the command / threat to forward the e-mail to everyone that you know lest He be ashamed to acknowledge you before the Throne of God. Yes—those forwards . . .

Anyway, I received one e-mail that told such a sad story in pictures that I had to check it on Snopes. It involves a beautiful young woman named Katie Kirkpatrick who develops cancer but perseveres through school, gets married to her high school sweetheart at the age of twenty-one, and then dies five days after her wedding. Snopes confirms its accuracy. The Snopes page also links to a photograph essay about Mrs. Katie Kirkpatrick Godwin, titled “The Bride Was Beautiful.”

I do not think that sentimentality offers much assistance in our attempt to understand the world or our place in it, but such stories do force us to concretize our abstractions about matters human.

Posted by Joseph on Tuesday, April 7, Anno Domini 2009
Philosophy | Anthropology • (1) Comments