Support for the Devine-Johnson Family in Time of Loss

On behalf of Chris Johnson and his children - Amos (& Teresa), Mara, and Josiah - who are navigating unimaginable depths of grief at the sudden loss of a beautiful soul, wife & mother, Kimberly Kay Devine-Johnson - several of their friends invite your support.

The funds from this page will be dedicated to the following needs:

1) The family needs to be together. Chris lives in Minneapolis. Mara and Josiah live in Washington. Amos and Teresa live in Iowa. There have already been several trips (upon her passing, for the memorial service, and others) and will be more to come in the future.

2) The extensive emergency, surgical, and medical costs not fully covered by insurance.

3) The cremation and memorial service costs.

4) The family also needs support to help ease the challenges of living from day to day in a world without Kim, to help them to experience glimpses of joy and wonder, comfort and healing – to not just "keep the ship from sinking" but to embrace possibility and hope as they make their way through and beyond the swamps and storms of deep grief and heartbreak.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for accompanying the family through this incredibly difficult, stressful, painful time.

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Here is Kim's obituary, written by her devoted spouse, Chris.

First, the impossible, wrenching fact: my beloved wife and life-partner, and our children Amos Johnson, Mara Johnson, and Josiah Devine Johnson's beloved mom Kimberly Kay Devine-Johnson, 61, passed away suddenly on May 2, 2024, from complications that arose after routine surgery to repair a broken arm sustained in a fall. (The Emergency Room doctors called it a "post-surgical blood clot -- pulmonary embolism -- that broke off and went to her lungs.")

Even more true is that her lifetime of deep care for others was grounded in the questions and reassurance of faith, her passionate commitments to justice and service on behalf of a better world, and her bottomless and expansive love, especially for her family.

And some basics: Kim was born November 3, 1962 in LeSueur, Minnesota, to mother Marilyn Mae (Schmidt) Devine and father Roger Lee Devine, and grew up on her family’s farm near Belle Plaine. She treasured her life there, loved the land and its creatures, and was active in church, 4H, music, speech, and many other aspects of small-town living that helped to shape the engaged and engaging person she was.

Kim received a B.A. from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, in 1985. She and I met in an epic water fight during our first year as students at Gustavus; ours was a classic, enduring love story. She earned a B.S. from the University of Minnesota in 1986. Her long career as a physical therapist included work in hospitals and clinics in the various cities where she and I and our family lived over the years, including Baltimore, Maryland; Cedar Rapids and Storm Lake, Iowa; St. Peter and Mankato, Minnesota. Since 2019 she was a pediatric physical therapist at Children’s Minnesota (Minneapolis).

Kim was deeply committed to her patients and their families, a tremendous colleague and inspirational mentor, and a tireless champion for justice, truth, and goodness. Her farm roots and care for the earth led her in 2002 to co-found Prairie Oaks Institute, a nonprofit educational retreat center on the farm in Belle Plaine, which she worked tirelessly to steward across the years until in spring of 2024 it transitioned to become the global headquarters of The Monarch Joint Venture.

Words fail, of course. But more about Kim the person: She loved reading (especially with her book group of many years), plants and living things, travel, music, and the arts, and meaningful conversations with others about their lives and about things that matter. She loved to laugh. She always had your back. Kim felt everything deeply. She cared, she loved, she gave with extraordinary heart. She was a prolific letter-writer and spectacular listener; both were among the many ways that she sustained wondrous friendships across many chapters of her life. She radiated grace, consistently saw people for who they truly are and could become, and brought out the best in others. Kim was a vibrant, funny, smart, fierce, kind, compassionate “force of nature” – an ultimately indescribable human being.

Kim is preceded in death by her parents and is survived by sister Tammy Devine (Mike Carlson) and niece Gwen and nephew Caleb; her husband of 37 years Christopher Johnson; and our children Amos (Theresa Warren) of Ames, Iowa; Mara and Josiah, both of Tacoma, Washington.

We miss you, Kimberly. We're endlessly grateful for the Gift and Blessing you've been in our lives and in the world. We love you, we love you, we love you....