November 15th was the one year mark since Kimberly James Buckman passed. As we get older, we all know that time seems as if it flies. But this has been a very long year. While the memories of that final day feel like it was just yesterday, it is only because of the indelible mark they left. Watching your love fade away from this earthly life while literally fighting for every breath, me and our family at her side trying to comfort her. Nothing will erase that trauma from our minds. 

Over these 365 days, I’ve had to remind myself to not focus on the 41 months of the Kim I came to know after her surgery on June 2, 2020. And it has been a struggle. That fight, the daily fight, to live as normally as we could. Push back fears of the inevitable. And find it in us to LIVE life as much as possible in spite of that incredible weight. Kim’s spirit wouldn’t allow anything to minimize the breaths she had left. She appreciated and fought to enjoy each and every single one as much as possible. She was indefatigable. But, she was not the same Kim as she was before. Brain tumor resection surgery will do that to a person.

So, I push to keep the Kim everyone knows and loves alive in my memory while never forgetting her strength against life’s toughest battle. Remembering her beauty, her humor, her unfiltered takes on pretty much everything, her love of her sports teams, her silly sayings, her “tell me a story” line, her 900-number voice, her terrible back-seat driver habit, her love for her friends, her “kid” and her mom and dad. All those memories and more are what I miss so much. So, for those of you who knew her well, today, think of one of your favorite Kim stories and have a good belly laugh in her memory. I know she will love hearing you laugh as you think of her while she watches over all of us. 

Miss you “Dolly Face.”