Katy denHeeten, born Kathryn McConnell, passed away this morning at 6 am. She had spent nearly two years dealing with cancer, humorously, joyfully, thoughtfully, and bravely. The proprietor of the Elberta Hideaway, Katy was a big Village booster. She got involved with the Elberta Alert right away and contributed several food stories to the paper edition, which we’ll be reposting here. She got up to the Village every chance she could to stay in her father’s small house on Lincoln Ave., which she had lovingly updated. Here’s a poem of hers we first published on this site in January of this year. In the words of her friend K, we will look to the stars for her.

Decades of Starlight

By Kathryn denHeeten

The stars surprise me
Right where they should be
Startled and snared
Hooked little smiles

I close my eyes
and she’s past the barbed wire
Her snowshoes on
A pack of matches in her mitten

She understands this landscape
Midnight on the crusty snow
The river in its slumber
Empty little nests in the trees

But she doesn’t see the future
She doesn’t know me
Motionless under her constellations
Decades of starlight in my pocket like a stone.