Help Honor Karen's Life and Passion for Photography

Kirstyn Longstreet is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Hey there. My name is Kirstyn. I'm 31 and my sister Kaitlyn is 28. We have recently lost our mother to End-Stage COPD. Her name was Karen Reid (maiden name D'ascenzo).

I consider myself so incredibly lucky to have been able to spend time with her on her final day. We lived about 5 hours apart, so when I heard that her condition had taken a turn, I rushed myself and my husband and two children down to Connecticut to see her.

We fortunately made it in time to see my mom. I, along with a social worker and at-home hospice nurse who were tending to her, made the call to have her transferred to a hospice room/facility. It was clear that she would not recover. Her condition had worsened, partially due to a fall a couple of days prior. She was suffering and heavily medicated to keep her from panicking. Her breathing was incredibly labored and she was unable to speak. The next morning, an ambulance arrived to her home and transported her to Waveny Care Center in New Canaan, CT, where she would live out her final few hours with me by her side.

Although she was mostly unable to respond (save for a squeeze of the hand here and there), I spoke to her, told her that I loved her, and played music for her. She loved the Grateful Dead, so I played some of that for her from my phone. I told her everything was alright and that she could let go. It was far and away the most difficult day of my life, but I am so incredibly grateful that I was able to be there in those moments.

She lived an interesting life, and before this illness took her from us, she was an incredibly talented photographer. She always had a camera in her hands. It was a passion that, in my young adult years, we shared. She got me my first Nikon when I was still in high school, and it stuck with me from there.

My mom loved to capture photos of the natural world around her, friends around the fire pit, and even some live music. She has thousands of photos that she has taken over the course of her lifetime saved across SD cards, hard drives, CDs, and prints. I feel so incredibly lucky to be in possession of all of her work. She had photos published in various newspapers over the years, but was never able to really curate a collection of her body of work.

So that brings us here. I plan to meticulously go through each CD, SD card, hard drive, etc. to create a curated collection of her best work, and publish it as a coffee table book.

It feels to me like an appropriate way to honor her life and create something that hopefully many people will enjoy. She loved to bring joy to the lives of others even when she had a hard time finding it for herself.

The cost of archiving, organizing, and publishing this collection will be between $5000 and $9000 (estimated based on preliminary research). Supporters who donate $100 or more will receive a copy of the book once it is published at no cost if they'd like one.

Myself, my sister, and the rest of our family are also planning a Celebration of Life for Summer 2024 that a portion of these funds will be used for. She did not wish for a service, so we are just going to get together, sit around a fire, listen to some good tunes and share a meal. Food is love in our family, even if she only ate well done burgers and burnt hot dogs at the gatherings.

Please consider donating so that we can celebrate her life together, and move forward with a beautiful book of some of her best photographic work. Thank you for your time and consideration.