Dear friends and fans of Kat —

I’m sorry to write that my mother, Kat, died suddenly in early May, at age 83.

She began life as one of three sisters in Montreal, Quebec, and her family moved to Toronto, Ontario, when she was 13. When she finished school, she became a teacher of young children, starting her own school in Toronto. That’s where she met my father, when he joined the staff as a teacher. They eventually owned the school together and moved it to Orlando, Florida, when they relocated there. Of course, the students didn’t come with them! They worked hard to rebuild the school in a new country with all new students. I’m proud that their school was the only racially integrated private school in Central Florida when it opened in 1971. Everyone was welcome there.

When I was born a few years later, they brought me to school with them, where I was like the school mascot as a baby and toddler. Kat even made me a tiny “uniform” so I would match the bigger kids. (Yes — in addition to running a school and teaching in it every day, my mom made all the school uniforms herself!) Eventually, I became a student at the school myself. The school closed in the early 1980s, and Kat moved on to a second career as a copy editor in K-6 textbook publishing. She worked at what is now Harcourt Inc. for the rest of her working life, retiring in 2009.

Writing for young people was always something that my mom was interested in (and good at), and in going through her papers after she died, I was reminded of all the little stories and poems she wrote for young readers, from picture book manuscripts to small stories to be used in textbooks. If you came to this website because you’re a fan of her DanceFutures series, you aren’t the only one! She built a dedicated fan base of readers young and old who see something of themselves in Tori, whether it’s her love of dance or her love of animals. Kat loved living in Central Florida, where she spent over 50 years of her life, and she made it the setting of the series.

Kat herself was also a former dancer and a lifelong supporter of animal rights, as well as a supporter of many other causes. She made regular donations to lots of nonprofits and donated her time and creativity to them as well. She was very modest about her contributions, and I only found out about some of them after she died. It has been very touching to connect with some of the people at the organizations she helped and learn about her work with them. My mother was the kind of person who never met a stranger and would always offer a cup of coffee to anyone who came by the house, even the plumber. Kindness and a willingness to help — even if it was at the expense of having time for herself — were two of her defining characteristics.

There was nothing that Kat couldn’t do — besides everything I’ve already mentioned, at various points in her life she created beautiful hand-smocked children’s dresses, taught country-western dancing, started a nanny business, dreamed up and ran an international penpal club for Russian and American people of all ages (including producing a newsletter that I was recruited to help fold and stamp as a teenager), taught French, learned to play the violin (and taught kids how to play), trained as an emergency first responder, distributed hundreds of tree seedlings to people in her neighborhood, and so much more. She passed down her skills in gardening and baking to me, as well as an innate confidence that she, and I, could do anything.

In addition to being my mom and the middle sister of Elinor and Karen, she was also aunt to Anne, Karen, Andrea, and Lesley; great-aunt to Lyndsay, Richard, Shelby, and Christopher; devoted mother of dozens of cats over the years; and a friend to many people near and far.

I’m currently working on re-organizing Kat’s website a bit, since there won’t be any further books in the series published, and I’m also taking this opportunity to make some design updates and move the whole site to a new hosting platform. So, the other content on the site isn’t available for now, but please check back soon if there’s something you’re hoping to see again here!

Sincerely,

Hillary, Kat’s daughter
September 2023