Please feel welcome to post your comments/thoughts/prayers on Katalina's blog here by emailing to Linh Nguyen at comments@katalinathang.com.
Thank you.
Headstone completed on 2/4/2010
__________________________________________________________
Eulogy
Good Afternoon everyone, I would like to say “Thank you” for coming to celebrate Katalina’s life today. Katalina’s journey here on earth has come to an end but a new journey is waiting for her in heaven.
Katalina Jill Thang was born on January 5th, 2004 at 2:24 pm. She weighed 5 lbs, 6 oz, had 10 fingers, 10 toes, and a strong grip. She was absolutely perfect on the outside. But inside was a totally different story. The medical terms to describe her condition included:
Single Right Ventricle, non-working Left Ventricle, ASD, VSD, AV Canal Defect, Dextrocardia, Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return, Asplenia, and Pulmonary Stenosis.
All of these big words basically meant that she had severe congenital heart defects and other multiple defects that went along with it. Children with these conditions are not expected to live longer than a month.
Katalina had her first open-heart surgery at 2 weeks old. She had her 2nd open-heart surgery at 5 months old. She had her 3rd open-heart surgery at 7 months old. Then she was put on the heart and double-lung transplant list at age 9 months. We were told at the time that she may only have a few months left to live.
Almost 2 years to the date that she was listed, Katalina received an organ donation of a heart and double-lung. She finally had her transplant operation. But as a result of complications, both of her diaphragms were paralyzed and she was unable to breathe on her own. We had to make the very difficult decision for her to have a tracheostomy put in, so that a ventilator machine could breathe for her. We didn’t know if she would ever be able to breathe on her own again.
After spending 5 months in the ICU, she finally came home and miracle upon miracle, one of her diaphragms re-gained function. It was enough for her to breathe on her own again and the traech was removed. Then for the next two years after her transplant, she battled small and large infections requiring her to continuously be in and out of the hospital, until finally, the function of her lungs deteriorated so much that she could no longer over come it. At age 5, Katalina had suffered through more than most of us will ever know in a lifetime.
As a child who had endured the pain and trauma of endless surgeries, hospitalizations, procedures, lab draws, medications, treatments, and doctor’s visits since birth – after everything that she had been through and continued to go through, you might think that she would have been depressed, insecure, timid, or a lifeless little girl. But in fact, she was the complete opposite of that.
Katalina embraced life with so much vigor and energy and strength. She was the happiest, most well-adjusted, and most loved baby you would ever know. Away from the hospital and aside from her daily medications and treatments, nothing fazed her. She enjoyed every moment of every minute of her life.
She didn’t need anything grand to be happy. She loved going to stay with mama or grandma and her baby cousins during the day. Mama was tough on everyone, but Katalina knew that she was mama’s soft spot and could ask for anything. Her baby cousins, Aaron, Ethan, Evan, and Benjamin could always bring a smile to her eyes no matter how sick she was. And she was always the instigator, giving her je-je or big sister Emmy a hard time. She would bully her little cousin Amber just because she could. And she wanted to copy everything and be just like her older cousin April and big sister Emmy.
Katalina found the greatest enjoyment in life’s simplest form. Things like singing at the top of her lungs in the car along to her favorite songs; pretending with her sister that they were swimming in the Olympics in the bathtub; calling her Soy Ko-Ko or Auntie Cheng for a Starbucks coffee run; eating her favorite foods like her mommy’s spring rolls, mama’s egg rolls, or daddy’s fried rice; having large birthday parties like it might be her last one; playing in the neighborhood park on a sunny day; being pushed around on her little tricycle; digging in the sand and playing in the ocean at the beach; riding on the little fishy ride at Bonfante Gardens 10 times in a row; running around with all of the little and big kids at a birthday party; pretending to play poker with her daddy and his friends; swimming every summer at her favorite thei-thei or Uncle Michael’s swimming pool in the backyard; taking a long vacation to Las Vegas or Lake Tahoe with her cousins; playing in the garden with her other grandma and generally being spoiled by her; going out to eat at her favorite restaurant Pho Y; visiting the library to check out books and play on the computer; listening to a bed-time story and bargaining for more; baking cupcakes and cookies with her mommy; doing arts and crafts and painting with her sister; or fishing with her daddy. Everything she did was her favorite thing to do.
At age 5, Katalina had experienced a lifetime’s worth of love, joy, and happiness. Her strong will to live, charming smile, and wise eyes had a way of affecting everyone who knew her. She has been our inspiration, our love, and our gift and she will continue to be. Because of her, we are stronger, better people. She has taught us so much about love, life, and family. In her honor and memory, we will continue to live as she has by appreciating and enjoying all the little things in life.
Katalina – You will always be mommy and daddy’s little baby. You will never be alone. Mommy, daddy, and big sister will always, always be with you.
Pause to play a video clip of her singing “Beautiful”.
Then we play a song that we have dedicated to her “My Heart Will Go On” from the movie Titanic.
In closing, please cherish everyday, hours, minutes, seconds, and moments with your family and friends. Let them know how you feel. In the morning of January 10, 2009 at approximately 5 am in morning, Katalina was fully awake and she called out for me. She said “daddy, I love you”, then she turned to her mom who was still sleeping and called out “mommy, I love you”, just because. There was no particular reason for it. As you can see from her pictures and video clips, Katalina loved life and people.
Thank you so much for your care, support and prayers. We have been blessed by having you as our family and friends.
