SUN CITY – Perhaps remembered best for her skill in teaching theatre and her ability to stir up the courage in others to take the stage, Kate Williams passed away peacefully on Dec. 10, 2011 after battling an aggressive form of breast cancer since last April.
Sun City resident Kate Williams succumbed to breast cancer December 10, 2011. She is survived by her husband, Jim Williams (pictured left), and sister Faith Wooden. (Photo provided)
She is survived by her sister, Faith Wooden, of Arlington Heights, Ill. and her husband Jim Williams. A cancer patient himself, Williams was diagnosed last January with mantle cell lymphoma, a rare form of cancer.
Though the two saw many doctors and nurses, they were each others’ best caregivers, switching roles as helper and patient as their strength ebbed and flowed.
Williams mentioned his wife’s generosity of time as one of her best traits.
“She would stop and talk with anybody at any time if they wanted to talk about something,” Williams said.
“Between the two of us, she was the social scheduler and the social butterfly,” he added.
These days, Williams could use some help with scheduling. His calendar is filled with friends’ offers for dinner.
These invites and gestures are all part of a support network that has not once diminished or forgotten about the couple. One look at Williams’ stocked refrigerator or “mountain of cards,” as he puts it, attests to this. Neighbors helped in other ways as well, such as offering car rides and visiting Kate while she was in hospice.
“The support never changed, it just changed what it was,” Williams said. “When she passed, of course, the support went to me.”
If the couple were still living in their old neighborhood, Williams said they would never have received even a fraction of the support they have been given in Sun City.
“Out in Sun City, your neighbors become your friends. In Sun City, people concentrate on each other more for some reason, and maybe it’s just that we’re all older and we’re all used to giving each other support in situations like this; where when we were younger, it just never came up,” he said.
Aside from offering emotional support, that stack of cards serves another purpose: a guest list for a planned Feburary 27 memorial service held in Kate’s honor.
“I’m calling it a champagne lunch in celebration of her life; it’s a full lunch meal for the people that did that support stuff for us, that did show up,” Williams said.
The lunch was originally planned as a party celebrating the couple being one year free of cancer. The plans may have changed, but the champagne remains, and Williams looks forward to the event as a way to celebrate Kate’s life, with friends offering toasts, her favorite music, and a few friends singing songs to her.
Jim and Kate have had experience planning memorials for their friends in the theatre community for the past 25 years.
“In fact, they started asking us to do it for them when they would go to one person’s memorial a month after they passed, and they would say, ‘Gee would you do this for me when I go?'” Williams said.
Holding the lunch a couple of months after Kate’s death will help Williams and the other guests to take a healthier perspective on Kate’s life.
“I am so glad to have had the 25 years,” Williams said.
