Published: July 19, 2008 10:29 pm            

Memory of woman's spirit inspires other to carry on

Katie Hammontree Whitlow faced challenges most people will never face, even though the tragic story of her disease and death is not what Katie would want people to think about, her friend, Aaron Denson, said.

Katie had a passion — a love for Christ that was unwavering even as death was near. She wanted to show that love even at a time she could have fallen into self-pity and doubt.

In December 2006, Katie was diagnosed with leukemia. She missed her daughter’s first birthday because she was in the hospital. After being in remission for a short period of time, Katie was told the leukemia was back. She was pregnant with her son, Bascom Ancil.

Katie’s life ended on Dec. 20, 2007, when she was only 26 years old.

Even when death was near, she never lost faith, Denson said.

“She put our church into a revival,” Denson said of their church, Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church. “To have a young lady who has been dealt such a bad deck of cards and still have such a great spirit.”

“She never questioned,” said Jason Denson, Aaron’s brother. “Even on her deathbed.”

Katie’s grandfather, Dr. Don Thomas, established the Katie Hammontree Whitlow Fund to raise money that will go to funding work that will spread and teach the word of God, Denson said.

The Densons and their other brother, Preston; Katie’s brother, Curt Hammontree and friends Mitchell Hollis and Lamar Starks, will be running across the hills of Asheville, N.C., on Sept. 5, to raise money for the fund.

They are running with passion to help fulfill Katie’s passion.

“We were looking for something we could do as a team,” Aaron Denson said. “We’ve raised close to $5,000. We’ve had letters from L.A. to New York. That in itself is inspiring.”

Katie inspired in quiet ways that often go unnoticed. Katie never preached a sermon or sang a solo. She prayed. She marked scriptures in her Bible with friends’ names.

“Even though you may not have met Katie, she probably prayed for you,” Aaron Denson said.

Katie described her heart for Christ in an e-mail posted on a Web site for the fund named after her (www.khwfund.org):

It’s all I can do to clap in time to praise music … but I can hear Him whisper and I have felt Him only inches away if any at all and He has touched me and my insides stand in attention and my heart is red and it beats hard and fast and if you turn me inside out like an orange there would be some fantastic celebration with parades and Ferris wheels and fireworks and marching bands and jelly beans and pinwheels and fire eaters and Hula Hoops and ... fat ladies in polka dots and lions and popcorn and acrobats.

The Densons see their friend as a leader.

“You try to be a leader of your household or your Sunday school class but to lead others to Christ and to pray for as many people as she did, that is the definition of a true leader,” Jason Denson said.

Katie’s love for Christ will lead Team Katie as they run the 208-mile race through the mountains — a race that will require each of them to run appriximatley 30 miles even at night.

“Our worries are nothing,” Jason Denson said. “I think Katie wanted us to understand that she never doubted her beliefs and she always said, ‘My cup runneth over.’ Now our “cups runneth over” because that is what she has done for us.”

All I know is that in the end it will be as God has planned and man cannot interfere. And God is love. Love is everything. - Amen (smile).--Katie Hammontree Whitlow

To donate to the Katie Hammontree Whitlow fund, go to the Web site, www.khwfund.org.

        

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