During the early months after Erika’s death, we sought counseling for help in dealing with our grief.  We needed help in sorting through our thoughts, feelings and emotions.  In one session, our counselor told us about the manner in which people in other cultures grieve the loss of a loved one.    The grief is extremely intense for a certain period of time.  For some, it’s one week.  For others it’s one month, and perhaps a full year for others still.  They wear black and allow themselves to sink into the depths of despair.  Then, after their allotted time of grieving has passed, they are done; they move on with their lives.  Rich and I adopted this philosophy to a certain extent; however, we knew we would need more time than one year.  So, after 3 years of intense grief, I feel it is time to think about living again.  Read more

Every now and then, the New York Times publishes a series they call “Neediest Cases”.   The purpose of the series is to inform readers about people in a particularly difficult situation in need of assistance.  The Times communicates the circumstances and the needs and then provides readers a means of offering aid to the people featured in the article.  On January 24th, 2009, our ‘Friend of EKF’, Leslie Lopez and her boys Johan and Tariq were profiled as one of New York’s “Neediest Cases”.   Click here to read the article, and notice the brief mention of the Erika Kate Foundation.  Thanks Leslie for being gracious enough to call attention to our Foundation.   We hope many people will want to lend our friends a hand.

Erika’s heart transplant in NYC was witnessed by Charlie Morris, a Manhattan based writer.  Mr. Morris was shadowing the surgeon who performed Erika’s transplant on the day Erika’s donor heart became available.  The story of Erika’s journey and transplant operation is told in a chapter of his new book, ‘The Surgeons:  Life and Death in a Top Heart Center’.

Mr. Morris’ telling of Erika’s story begins this way:

“I saw Erika Maynard only once.  She was a heart-breakingly beautiful little girl of four, hugging a stuffed animal and in tears because her mother, Traci, had just stepped back from Erika’s gurney so the nurses could take her into the OR to receive a new heart.  I was there to observe the transplant, and as the OR’s double doors swung shut, I could see Traci shrink back against the corridor wall, with both hands over her mouth and terrible pain in her eyes.”

The book received a nice review from the New York Times Book Review.  It’s available through Amazon.com for $16.47.  Click on the icon for a link to Amazon.  The Erika Kate Foundation receives a small commission from each copy of the book purchased via this link.

Although you have chosen not to make a contribution to the Erika Kate Foundation at this time, we would like to thank you for thinking of us. Please take a look around the site and get to know more about us. Thanks!

Thank you for your contribution to the Erika Kate Foundation. We appreciate your support!