Katie Norton – Remarks by Willow Norton

Celebration of life services may be listened to on this page.

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In the days and weeks after my sister Aspen’s passing, I could feel that my mom wasn’t going to last much longer. At first I thought this was just a fear, but I now believe that God had been preparing me all along. My dad has asked me to share some of this experience today.

In my dad’s Facebook post, he said that “In life, [Aspen and my mom] were rarely apart from each other for all their trials, and I suppose their close passing is reflective of their desires to be done with mortal experiences and regroup to provide the help and assistance our family needs from the other side of the veil.” I completely agree with this.

My mom had a hard life. While I grew up, it seemed like her trials were constant and consistent, with hardly any time for a break. She suffered physically, mentally, and emotionally. Most recently, she was told she would probably need to get her foot amputated, due to bones dying in her foot. This was all after being mostly stuck in bed for 4 years because of her foot and chronic pain. This last December, she also suffered mentally in such a way that caused her to have no memory of Christmas.

When I was in 3rd grade, she was in a serious car accident that, through a series of accidents, led to unintentional addiction. In junior high, she and my dad lost custody of Aspen to the state as we explained last month in Aspen’s funeral. My memory isn’t perfectly clear, but I remember my parents fought hard to regain custody which took 27 months. She was seriously affected by this.

I share all of this for a reason. After Aspen’s death, and after everything my mom had gone through in life, with very little hope for the future, it didn’t feel like she had a reason to live anymore. A few weeks ago, we had a scare where we thought she was going to pass overnight. She ended up fine, but maybe this was also preparing us. In my prayers, I began to feel strongly that I should pray for my mom to have a release from her pain and suffering – whether that meant she was miraculously healed, or she needed to move on to the next life. On June 19th at 9:30 am, I sent this message to my friend: “I honestly am not sure if my mom’s even gonna live that much longer.” 3 hours later, I got the call from my sister that our mom had passed away. Suddenly I remembered that I had dreamt about her passing away the night before. God prepares us for what lies ahead, whether we know it or not.

Over the years, so many of you have supported us in times of need – whether you know it or not. We’d like to express our gratitude to you all: Those who drove us to school, appointments, or activities when our mom was unable to; those who lent us cooking ingredients over and over again; friends who have been a listening ear or a place to find relief; our wonderful young women and young men leaders and peers who loved us and created a safe space, and were incredible examples; our wonderful ward family who have brought us dinners and help over the years; the list goes on. We feel deep gratitude for all you’ve done for our family, and hope to someday repay it by the way we serve others.

I’m so glad to know that both my mom and Aspen are free of their pains, and I hope they’re doing all the things that they couldn’t do in their mortal bodies. We’ll see them again soon.