RIP Kelly

I don't know if any of you reading here knew Kelly, aka Katyacoldheart. She died on the 4th of February, of Covid. She will be missed by many of us in the plus size blogging community. 

I met Kelly nearly five years ago when I went to Manchester to go shopping with her and Steph. Here's my blog post about it, although sadly I didn't get any photos of us all. The new Beth Ditto collection was in Selfridges so we looked at that and tried bits on. We had a brilliant lunch and some cocktails and I went home having made a new friend. I saw her at another event either later in 2016 or early in 2017, I think. 

But she was always around online. Kelly was often on Twitter and Instagram with likes and replies to tweets. She was a very kind person, and had a wicked sense of humour and was very dry. She did really amazing black work cross stitch. She collected those York ghosts and little house figures. She loved Halloween. She was a genuinely lovely person and loved her little dog Arlo a lot.

She had an autoimmune disease which affected her lungs, and for at least the last year she had been on oxygen at home, and had had to give up work. This means that it isn't surprising that Covid affected her so badly and that she couldn't survive it. However, that didn't at all mean she deserved to die, or that her life was any less precious. She could have easily lived a lot longer with her autoimmune disease, and she should have. She should have survived Covid. The government has so much blood on its hands, and unfortunately Kelly will be just another statistic to them. 

Steph and I have decided that when it's safe, we will get together and have a few cocktails in honour of Kelly. A few others in the community have said they'd like to join us. I have met so many people through plus size blogging. I haven't met all of them in person but through Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, they have turned into friends. Online friendships are very real, and I have already felt Kelly's absence just while she was in hospital. It's February 5th as I write this and I'm really sad. I have lost a genuine friend, and I have a feeling she will leave a big gap.

This photo is Steph, Kelly, Leah, and Anne-Lise at an event in 2017. Don't they all look so beautiful? I'm proud to call all these gorgeous women my friends, and I hope that Kelly lives on in us.