Remembering Kathy in the words of an elderly person from the book "The View in Winter."
"If I find no home any longer in this world, it is because God has been withdrawing me, my love, my treasures, my remembrances, my hopes, from a place where the frost-wind of death touched every precious thing, where no good can last; but night falls, and only icy solitude and silence remain.  This is no home, this is but a lodging.  God is making all things dark and silent around me....I must begin to long for home.  I seem almost asleep, but my heart is awake...memories sleep, thoughts sleep, but love is awake.  It does not think or plan or labor to remember but it loves.  It is withdrawn from the surface of my life to the center... My God, I would not die as the unconscious things - the frozen sparrow under the hedge, the dead leaf whirled away before the night wind."
Kathy was at peace, as the family knows, after she received the sacrament of the sick.  She had made her peace with God and with herself.  And she has her family and community of friends.   And she has her monk-priest brother-in-law  offering Masses at the abbey. 
"I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me shall never die."
"Just as the seed is planted in the ground, if it remains on the ground, it is sterile; but if it is planted deep, it springs up with fruitful blade.  So shall I be planted in the earth and rise up again." 
And thus, the three elements will have been completed for  Kathy: The Word of God will be read for us, The Holy Eucharist will be celebrated at another place,  and a family/community of friends will all be present for the final committal.

Remembering Kathy in the words of Flannery O'Connor:
"I decided I must be a pretty pathetic sight with these crutches.  I was in Atlanta the other day at Davidson's Department Store.  And old lady got on the elevator behind me, and as soon as I turned around, she fixed me with a moist,  gleaming eye and said in a loud voice, "Bless you, darling."  I felt exactly like the misfit in one of my stories.  And I gave her a weakly lethal look.  Whereupon, greatly encouraged, she grabbed my arm and whispered very loudly in my ear, 'Remember what they said to John at the gate, darling.'  It was not my floor, but I got off.  And I suppose the old lady was astonished at how quickly I could get away on crutches.  I have a one-legged friend and I asked her what they said to John at the gate.  She said she reckoned they said, "The lame shall enter first.'  This may be because the lame will be able to knock everybody else aside with their crutches."
That's Kathy - and she is with the Lord God - and heaven help anybody in her way.

Remembering Kathy in the words of a Southern Baptist minister named Al Staggs:
"The miracle of a believer's faith, in the face of terminal illness, and the faith of a loving family, is just as important as any story of a miraculous cure of illness.  Very few people experience a total reversal of illness.  Most people diagnosed with terminal illness struggle through it to the very end."
So was the miraculous presence of God in the life of Kathy.
Fr. Philip Vanderlin, OSB

Remembering Kathy as the poet says:
Is there a leaf upon the tree
The Father does not see?
Leaves fall, so do we all
Return to earth, to sod,
Sparrows and kings,
And all manner of things
Fall, fall into the hands
Of the living God
She has fallen. She has been caught.

May She rest in peace in those Loving Arms.  Amen

Fr. Philip Vanderlin, OSB

Kathy was a wonderful person. She took care of many of us at USPS. I am very grateful for having her in our department. God bless Kathy and her loved ones.

OBITUARY

Kathleen Anne Vanderlin

October 5, 1954 – February 28, 2026

Sunset & Kapala-Glodek Funeral Home and Sunset Cemetery

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