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October-December, 2010

Angel Kathy Loved People

by Rev. Bob Thompson

Dear Loved Ones, Rev. Kathy Claire Martin Thompson’s memorial service, was held on Saturday, July 24th, under the trees in the backyard at Bumpity Road. Over a hundred people arrived to attend and were invited to speak. The memorial service was summed up accurately by the one sentence statement of Tayanne: ”I stepped into LOVE and the whole world was family.”

It was an incredibly moving and awesome experience for all. Looking back now, I remember where the heartfelt compassion of officials, strangers, friends, and family began. It began with Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Babcock, who knocked on our door to inform me of Kathy’s accident. Mike drove me to the Fox River Bridge, where the red Saturn had been removed from the water, and Kathy’s body removed from the badly damaged car, which had hit the bridge railing before submerging upside down in the Fox River. Sheriff Richards and Medical Examiner Angela sat with me in the ambulance and consoled me, while I talked to Kathy, and kissed her hand, lips, and brow.

Three front page news stories with photos about Kathy appeared in the Portage Daily Register. The following was written by Jen McCoy, who had met Kathy several years ago when she interviewed us about dream interpretation and published that story. After learning of Kathy’s death, Jen phoned me and asked to write a story about Kathy. Jen then interviewed people here at Bumpity Road for three hours and sat at our dinner table and cried with us. After reading Jen’s article, I decided to not print an obituary because She Loved People, said it all. We continue to learn that She Loved People has had a great impact on many people who did not know Kathy:

She Loved People

Bagpipes wailed across the tall grass Tuesday night for Kathy Thompson. “Play Amazing Grace for Kathy,” Bob Thompson, her husband, told Lawrie Moy, who played the bagpipes at the couple’s 2004 wedding. Kathy Thompson, 52, died Monday when her car went into the Fox River. More than a dozen family and friends, including Moy, filled the Thompson house Tuesday to reflect and comfort each other.

“As her last gift, she’s given her body to the UW Medical School for students,” Bob said, which he said was in line with her boundless generosity. The couple married just eight days after meeting and never faltered at demonstrating affection for each other, friends said. “They would touch noses and foreheads several times a day,” said Renee Nies of Sun Prairie.

“The phone is ringing off the hook. People are coming and going, they are dearly loved.”

The Thompsons were both nondenominational ministers at Pathways of Light in rural Portage, where they aimed to live with inner peace, meditate on love and healing and give whatever they could to those in need.

Their home, where they did counseling sessions, has an open-door policy to people from any walk of life.

“She loved people, and I think that’s what made her such a good counselor. She was not an evangelist type. She accepted people as they were, but she won people because of who she was,” said Randy Martin, Kathy’s dad. He drove up from his home in Lexington, Kentucky.

Two large Amish tables sit in the Thompson home, and each person there Tuesday helped console one another and fixed plates of food for them.

“Another angel’s just been sent home,” said Billy Wilson, of Endeavor, Thompson’s cousin.

Bob’s son, Gary Thompson, and his family, Edna and two of their five children: Kierstin Thompson, 12, and Sophia, 7, went to see Kathy at the Columbia County Medical Examiner’s Office.

“She still had a smile on her face,” said the 12 year old. The family got word of her death Monday night and drove from Illinois to Wisconsin on Tuesday morning.

“Kathy was an angel on Earth. My favorite things were her warmth, smile, spirit and enthusiasm,” Edna said.

They placed an angel and flowers at the crash site.

The Revs. Paul and Deborah Phelps were good friends of Kathy. They said her death is devastating.

“I know that when I was in her presence, I always felt like I had her complete, undivided attention. Her mind wasn’t distracted by thoughts, and it was just the presence of quiet, peaceful love,” said Paul, of Madison. Deborah said the Thompson’s home was a “cocoon of love.”

The couple called it “Bumpity Road” because when Bob’s children were young they couldn’t say “bumpy,” so the name stuck.

Tim Moermond, a family friend, held Bob’s hand for a while. “Every day, she would say to her husband, ‘Do you know how beautiful you are?’”

“She was an inspiration to many, many people,” Thompson said. “The most peaceful person I’ve met in my life.”
 

As Kathy’s friends shared that published story with others, the most frequent question asked was, “Was she really like that? Do people like that really exist? I never met one. I wish I could have met Kathy.”
All those she has touched and loved have been deeply moved and continue to share her story with others. Many still feel Kathy’s presence.

While writing her story, Jen McCoy noted that nearly everybody she spoke to referred to Kathy as a living angel. Perhaps a hundred people have said that to me in their e-mails, phone calls, cards and in person. Maybe more.

I am grateful that they said it to Kathy while she was alive. And she always answered that they were an angel, and that they were seeing in her what was in themselves. She was very consistent in telling others that they were angels.

My sister, Rita, reminded me of the great wisdom in the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the courage to change what I can, the serenity to accept what I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference. I have found that it is a good prayer to live by.

Following Kathy’s example of being ever kind, helpful, joyful and peaceful is the spoken and written goal of many of her friends, and also of myself. And so the open door at Bumpity Road continues to be open, and as Kathy and I sang to so many at the door:

We want you to know,
that you never have to knock.
The door may be shut,
but it has no lock.

And others frequently joined us to greet arriving guests with our trademark song:

I don’t know what it is about you,
that makes me feel the way that I do.
It could be your laugh
It might be your smile.
Whatever it is, I like your style.

Sometimes, when a group arrived, we would stand together on the picnic table, and sing to them.

Kathy is remembered for being ever loving, ever helping and ever joyful and is the most loving, helpful and joyful person that I have ever met. Many others have told me, and are still continuously telling me, that Kathy was their personal outstanding example of how they wished to live their lives.

During Kathy’s memorial service, I read and then sang the following four verses:

KATHY’S LOVE PRAYER

The love that Kathy’s giving me.
I am giving now to you.
All her joy and happiness,
that’s what she asks me to do.

The love that Kathy’s giving me,
and the joy she brings to you,
she asks us to give to others,
that’s all, she prays, that we each do.

Your friend, Rev. Bob Thompson

© 2010, Pathways of Light. http://pathwaysoflight.org
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