The congregation at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church tonight in Mattituck was a sea of pink in honor of Kaitlyn Doorhy, who died one year ago today in a tragic accident while away at school.
Friends, family, classmates and a community poured into the church for a memorial mass in Kait’s memory, to share memories and celebrate the life of a young woman who touched the hearts of all who knew her. They came wearing the pink T-shirts designed for Kait’s Angels, a group formed after her death to perform acts of kindness in her memory.
The vigil mass, led by Father Joe Staudt, was filled with song and prayer.
In his homily, Father Staudt recalled the popular poem, “Footprints in the Sand,” written by Mary Stevenson, which, he said, means different things to people at different crossroads in their lives. The poem centers on a man who is struggling with his faith, and who, when looking back, sees only one set of footprints.
He questions God, asking why there are not two sets of footprints, why God has abandoned him in his time of darkest need.
“The Lord replied, ‘The time when you have seen only one set of footprints, is when I carried you.'”
And in the same way, Father Staudt said, the Lord carried those who were heartbroken after the tragic loss of Kait, who died at just 20, leaving behind in her footprints a legacy of love for others and a compassionate heart that shines through in the works of Kait’s Angels.
Even in her death, Kait left the gift of life; her organs were donated to help others waiting for a transplant.
Karen Paulick, an organ recipient, spoke at the mass. She said she received her liver transplant 18 years ago, at 32; she had been battling an autoimmune disease that had caused her liver to shut down.
“I knew nothing about organ donation,” she said.
But it was organ donation that saved her life.
Speaking to the crowd, Paulick said 1,806 lives were saved in 2014 due to organ donation, with 122,446 people on a waiting list right now for transplants, and 10,152 of those in New York State alone. One person, she said, can save eight lives with organ donation; 22 people die every day waiting for the gift of life.
New York, she said, rates the lowest in the nation, 50th out of 50 states, with only 24 percent signed up to donate their organs. “That’s unbelievable to me,” she said.
While Paulick said she’d never met Kait, she’d reached out to Darla Doorhy, Kait’s mom, after hearing her story.
Kait, she said, had told Darla when she was only 16 years old that she wanted to donate her organs; Darla told her daughter that she’d have to wait until she was 18 and got her driver’s license. On that dark day last August, Kait’s family remembered her words, and carried out her wishes. Kait’s wish, Paulick said, “changed the lives of others.”
And although families of organ donors are facing their “deepest sorrow and pain” in turn, they are extending a ray of bright hope to the mothers and daughters, sons and fathers, children and wives and husbands who will live on, because of their caring hearts.
Paulick was able to live to see her little boy, only six when she received her transplant in 1996, go on to high school and college.
“Please remember that Kait left us too soon, but her decision has impacted others who might never have had a chance without the donation of her organs,” she said.
She urged those in attendance to sign their driver’s licenses, fill out forms distributed after the mass, or go to LongLiveNY.org for more information.
As they filed out of the church, hugging through their tears, those who loved her passed collages of Kait’s photos, her bright smile shining on.
Literature was also onhand about Kait’s Angels; the group holds events such as designer handbag Wingo and a recent Poker Run to raise funds to help others.
Last Saturday, a Kait’s Angels yard sale was held to benefit the family of Benjamin Pileski, a young Mattituck man critically injured after being struck by a taxi in Montauk last month.
“If you cannot attend, please say a prayer for Kaitlyn wherever you are,” the Doorhy family said, of the mass.
