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Kait had met some wonderful people while in the hospital, all were in for weeks or months at a time. While she had multiple visitors every day and rarely spent a minute alone (and usually only got this if she begged), others rarely ever had visits and some didn't even have family. It saddened her to see these people sit alone day-in and day-out. She would go visit them and if she was isolated then she would ask one of her family members to go spend some time with them so they weren't alone. She emailed and IM'd them regularly. There was one girl whom she didn't meet for almost a month yet spoke to her all day via the internet. Others, were not even in the same hospital but chatted with her and gained support.
The visitors, DVD player, computer, video games, etc. really helped get her through the boredom. Game night with all of her friends and family was her favorite event. Kaitlin felt very blessed to have so many people from the community who cared about her and came to visit. She didn't think it was right for those who were in the battle alone. She and her sister, Jennifer, discussed the idea of starting a foundation once Kait was better. Kait wanted to run the foundation. Their idea was to keep it simple. There were enough charities to help with the big items but none that helped with the little items like a PSP or a DVD player. Kait wanted to keep the boredom away.
There was also a second, key part to the foundation. People would contact the foundation via nurses, doctors, internet, friends, family, whatever, and a representative from the foundation would go visit that person in the hospital. They would spend time getting to know the individual and his or her desires, not needs. After spending this time, the rep would go home with several ideas of what would really make the ordeal livable for that person. It might be giving some friends a ride to the hospital or bus tickets to get to the hospital. The representative would then return to the hospital taking the gift to the patient thus giving the patient two separate visits. Kait always said, it doesn't matter who the visitor is or whether or not you know them, it is just nice to have someone to talk to. This is something I learned with all of the people we met while she was sick.
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