Kati’s Story – Awareness Through Travel

Kati’s Story Through Her Life Partner’s Words

Kati was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm on Monday, August 24, 2020 at the young age of 28. She had always complained of headaches but never thought it was serious enough. Finally, I told her to go to the doctors. One day, when the headaches became unbearable and she became nauseous, I convinced her to go to the hospital. After spending a day in the ER, she called me crying saying they had found a brain aneurysm.

The next step was to set up an appointment to see what the proper actions were to be. We took it easy, trying not to stress her out and just relax for the time being. Her appointment to see a neurologist was scheduled for Friday, September 10th. She passed away suddenly on Saturday, September 5th. The reason for all of the dates is because of how fast it happened and also how long in between the time we found out and when she passed. I encourage anyone who has been told they have a brain aneurysm to push harder to get checked out or have action taken. We did not push hard enough and with COVID-19 it was hard enough to get our appointment scheduled. She didn’t even make it to her consultation. Please do whatever you can to get the help you need to take care of an aneurysm.

Kati loved to travel. Before we met, I had never left the state of Wisconsin. In the ten years, we were together, we traveled all over the world. A few spots of note are, Iceland, Dublin, London, Paris, Vancouver, and 11 National Parks. When I was asked before her funeral what her favorite vacation was, I answered, “the next one.” She couldn’t even finish one vacation without planning where to go next. We had a goal to travel to all of the National Parks.

Kati’s friends and I decided the best way to honor her memory was to create two stickers that can be found at @blackhearttraveler. The goal behind this project is to purchase the stickers and take a picture with them somewhere you have traveled and then post to social media tagging @blackhearttraveler. We want to see how far across the world we can reach and share Kati’s story. We will have a map on the Instagram/Facebook pages to show all of the pictures.

This is Kati’s story. She lives on with us through travel and through our love of life. If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with a brain aneurysm, I urge you to push for next steps and treatment options. Lives can be lost so quickly to a brain aneurysm rupture. I want to spread awareness so no others have to lose someone they love to this treatable disease.