Kate was beautiful inside and out, she loved beauty and filled the world with beautiful things. She was uniquely, supremely talented in so many ways and was still creating and drawing in the last few days of her life: always inspired by things she saw around her. The last thing she drew was a toy soldier and his wife inspired by the window catch in her room.
Kate had always been artistic, she always drew, and won several competitions for her art. even as a small child she would fill pages with meticulously tessellating shapes: She continued in this pursuit and began to make it in to a new career after Freddie was born. Unknown to anyone except Mitch and 3500 Instagram followers, she created a large portfolio of stunning pattern designs which she was selling on the internet and again winning competitions with: these were competitions with around 500 entrants from around the world based on a public vote. She only revealed these incredible achievements to Me and Dad a couple of weeks before she died. Kate was a very private, shy, modest person, she was also a perfectionist . We often talked about our art and Kate had told me she was just doodling, she wasn’t ready to show her work yet. I think she had wanted to keep it a secret until she was sure everything was perfect and beautiful and most importantly, she didn’t want a fuss about it. Instagram allowed her to get other peoples reactions and opinions on what she was doing anonymously, she also shared information about her illness with her followers when she hadn’t told many of her friends that she was ill. Kate’s shyness started as a little girl, she would have been very confused walking in here today and seeing all these people here for her, she probably would have gone and hidden somewhere.
Kate was quirky, one of a kind. As a child she was never one to follow the norm, when it snowed she would be outside in her lovely rainbow striped swimming costume and at the height of summer you might find her dressed in a winter coat with a hat, scarf and gloves. In later life she wouldn’t buy an item of clothing unless she had dreamed about it first! She also had the extraordinary ability to melt in to any item of furniture like a cat and fall asleep.
Kate loved the lovely, cozy cottage she was renovating with Mitch, creating a gorgeous, cozy home. She had very definite design ideas and has pinterest pages full of design inspiration and a long list of jobs to keep Mitch, Steve and Dad busy for some time to come. She chose the house, knowing it was the right one. I can see why; there are echoes of our childhood home about it, the style, the aspect, the sash windows, the way it is placed in a valley with a canal and railway running through it and a stunning view, this was the view Kate was looking at on her last day and it made her feel at home and at peace.
She loved her garden and had so many plans for it. She started a wormery, no doubt inspired by her childhood past-time of eating worms at the bottom of the garden. (We have photographic evidence!) She was often found down there, mud on her hands and knees and all around her mouth. She also liked to chase me with caterpillars, slow worms, snails and frogs. She was not afraid of creepy crawlies at all, she found them fascinating. I remember her showing me a woodlouse which she turned upside down to reveal that it had lots of tiny, white baby woodlice crawling about on it’s belly. A strangely fascinating sight.
Although Kate was modest and shy, she was incredibly, surprisingly brave, she did things most people wouldn’t dream of doing: She ran the London marathon the Bristol Half and several others, even though I had never thought of her as particularly sporty.
She went to South America and lived in the rainforest in Peru for 3 months with a bunch of total strangers. Firstly she continued her fascination with bugs by climbing trees and recording the biodiversity (creepy crawlies) in the trees, she then went on to work in a monkey sanctuary, which I know she loved because she adored cuddling the baby monkeys. While she was there she lived in extremely damp conditions where everything went moldy and she had to go to the toilet over the edge of a cliff called the long drop while panthers prowled around the camp at night. Following this she drove a truck down the length of Chile with a group of fellow travellers that she met while she was there.
Kate travelled extensively; she travelled to Japan, Thailand, The Maldives, Egypt and many other fascinating places and came back with tales and inspiration for her work. She travelled far and wide with several friends and of course Mitch. She loved a new experience, especially somewhere culturally different and beautiful. We had a couple of lovely holidays together in Greece. Once when I was at University, we took sketchbooks and I was having a bit of artist’s block about what direction my art was going in, she managed to help me through it, we often did this for each other. Kate had a similar block with her work nearing the end of her degree. Somehow talking about it with each other helped us work things though and move on to our next inspiration. I will miss that. On that holiday in Greece, I painted a portrait of Kate, I think of it as a breakthrough piece, somehow she unlocked a new, free style of painting for me and I have developed this style and it is still evident in my portrait work today.
Kate and I worked together, firstly in a hotel, then a café and of course at Usborne, not on the same projects, that was quite deliberate. We both had strong opinions and I think that wouldn’t have worked. It was nice though, to know she was there on the other side of the studio. I got to see my sister every day during those years, for which I am glad, I guess many siblings don’t see so much of each other when they are adults.
Kate’s prolific creating will live on, her books inspire a new generation of Kates to create and craft. Her beautiful home will continue to keep the men in her life busy and provide a lovely home for Mitch and Freddie. And in Freddie her love and cuddles live on. Not to mention those lovely long eyelashes.