Kathy Taylor, her husband Nate, and their five kids. Photo: Taylor family/Kathy's Miracle
A Christian mother of five who refused cancer treatment while 26 weeks pregnant to save her unborn baby has died on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old Utah woman, Kathy Taylor, died at around 4 p.m. on New Year's Eve after a short battle with melanoma. She was first diagnosed with the terminal cancer in August, while carrying her sixth child, but refused the treatment because it would be too risky for the baby. Sadly, Kathy was forced to deliver the baby 14 weeks premature on September 11 after her liver failed from cancer complications, and the baby, named Luke Tazelaar Taylor, died two weeks later of an infection.
"My mom yelled my name, she sounded distressed," Kathy's husband, Nathan, wrote in the family blog, entitled Kathy's Miracle. "I got out of bed and went into the bathroom. Kathy was sitting in the bathroom and my mom was holding her up. She told me she thought Kathy had passed. I sat on the tub next to Kathy and started checking for signs of life. As I realized she had gone I gathered her in my arms and embraced her. I could not believe it. I was so sad that I had been asleep and not been with her when she passed. I was so sad it was already goodbye."
Doctors had originally given Kathy only 24 hours to live, but she pushed on for several more months through one daughter's birthday on September 14 and her own birthday on December 10.
When Luke was born, he only weighed 1 pound 15 ounces. He was immediately taken to the neonatal intensive care unit at Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, but was able to be held by his mother before he passed on September 27.
But even through it all, Kathy and her family never lost sight of God and his plan. "I still trust that God is completely aware and that everything will happen as it should," Kathy wrote in her blog on Christmas Eve. "I will be grateful to be out of pain and with Heavenly Father and Jesus and hope to be able to offer lots of comfort to my family from the other side. I am so grateful they have so many wonderful people to turn to. A merciful God they can always pray to."
The Kathy's Miracle blog is full of inspiration that the family pulled from God's love and an amazing understanding of His plan. It was started on October 6 of this year, just before baby Luke's funeral as a way for the Taylor family to communicate the experience. It's filled with everything from descriptions of Kathy's pain through cancer treatments to light-hearted humor ("God made me live longer so I could have some French toast," Kathy jokes.), but the underlying foundation is the family's strong faith in God.
"I believe I will be welcomed into heaven and my children will be comforted by their heavenly father and their earthly father and their older brother Jesus Christ," Kathy dictated to her husband during one visit in October. "We will all get through it."
