Somewhere Under Heaven

Goodbye Katie Winslow

Music for this chapter

Hallelujah by Bon Jovi

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Katie texted me a few days ago saying how she needed to talk to both me and Rob. I called him about this text and he told me he got the same exact text.

We meet Katie at a diner in Jersey and it was rather heartbreaking.

"Hey, you guys," Katie says when she walks in.

"Look, I just want to say I'm sorry that I said all those rude things," she says to us. "Things have been crazy lately."

"How so," I ask.

"I was diagnosed with cancer and it's stage four."

We're both taken back. "Katie, is there anything we could do," Rob asks her.

"Just pray. The doctors say they did everything they could and now I'm just tying up the loose ends."

It's a few months since that day at the funeral and I can understand why this needed to be done. Katie told us she was stopping all treatment because it's terminal. "I'm spending my last days at my brother's house on Long Island."

We both hug Katie on our way out and make our way to my car.

"I can't believe this," I tell Rob.

"I know. It's so surreal. Cancer is such a bitch."

"Tell me about it."

We wrap up production on the film and one night at my house, I tell Rob I'm going to drive to Long Island to spend time with Katie before she dies. He asks if I would like some company on the drive but I keep telling him that he doesn't have to join me.

Of course he insists so I cave. The next day we both make the drive to Long Island. On the way there, we share memories of our time with Katie and we also stop at a few really cornball attractions. Yeah, I have this thing for weird places.

We arrive in Montauk where Katie's brother Jacob has the house and are greeted by his wife, Eileen at the door. "Hello, you must be Katie's friends," she says to us. "Welcome, come on in."

We arrive to find Katie sitting in a chair on the porch. "Hey, glad you made it," she says to us. We would spend the next couple of days either talking to Katie or taking in the scenery in the town. One night, we're sitting near the beach, I get a text from Jacob.

"You need to get back here," it says.

I read it and I'm shocked. Rob sees the look on my face and asks me what's wrong.

"I think Katie is about to die," I tell Rob. We rush right back to the house and make our way inside. We are greeted by Jacob who gives us the news.

"She's gone," Jacob tells us. "When," I ask.

"About five minutes ago," he says. "I think it was an aneurysm that the doctors warned us about. She didn't suffer, Casey."

I'm beside myself. I ask if I could go inside and see her which Jacob agrees to. I walk in and she's lying in bed peacefully and relaxed. I sit next to the bed and start to cry. "I can't believe you're gone," I say holding her hand.

I don't hear Rob coming into the room at all. All I hear is the tide coming in from just outside. Everything is so quiet and peaceful. "I'm just glad we got to patch things up," I say to her lifeless body in the hope that her soul was in the room to hear it. "Goodbye, my old friend."

I then get up to find Rob standing next to the bed. He sees the look on my face and recognizes it anywhere...it's the look of grief. He would pull me close and let me cry just like he did with the deaths of my sister and my mom.