“In many ways Caitlin Dolaghan was just like any other California teen – worried about getting her driver’s liscense and what to wear to the prom. But when we introduced Caitlin, then 18, to our reader’s last fall in a story about the nation’s first free-standing hospice for kids (”A Place to Say Goodbye,” Oct. 31, 2005), she was also battling metastatic osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. Earlier this month Cailin lost her fight. She died at home on Jan 12, surrounded by her mother, Carol, dad John, sister Peggy and brother Wilson.
PEOPLE chronicled Caitlin’s struggle and also the time she spent at George Mark Children’s House, an extraordinary San Leandro, Calif., facility for dying kids, where she volunteered as an art instructor. Says GMCH cofounder Kathy Hull:”Caitlin’s willingness to share and the time and energy she spent to tell her story to so many people were amazing.” Our readers thought so too. Some 250 made financial donations to the home. Two people called Caitlin personally to offer support, Amy Lee, lead singer of Caitlin’s favorite band Evanescence, and Johnny Depp, who phoned from a movie set in the Bahamas to invite Caitlin to Los Angeles-a trip she enever got the chance to make. The memory of Caitlin’s courage remains vivid for those who came to know her. Donations in her honor can be made to Comfort for Kids at http://www.hospicecc.org/.”

Thanks to evboard for this!