Catherine "Kate" Taylor

May 4, 2018

Catherine Ruth Taylor, also known as Kate Taylor, age 62 passed away May 4, 2018. Kate passed away from complications from metastasized breast cancer. She was surrounded by family and friends during her last few days and left this physical world holding her husband’s hand. Born July 22nd, 1955 in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Donald and Ruth Taylor. The oldest of three children, Kate was always known as the bossy sibling. After Kate’s birth, the family moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado where her brother Donald Taylor was born. Then they moved to Virginia and then back to Massachusetts where her sister Bonnie Hennessy, nee Taylor, was born. Finally the family settled in Ridgewood, New Jersey until Kate’s graduation from Ridgewood High school in 1973. After high school, Kate went to Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado for a degree in Civil Engineering. Over a 17 year saga of marriage, motherhood, divorce, schoolwork, and working to support her son, Kate’s degree was finally completed in 1991 as a Bachelor’s of Sociology and minor in Civil Engineering. During her time at CSU, Kate founded or was the president of numerous student organizations including the Society of Women Engineers, the Non-Traditional Age Student Club and the Overseas Development Network. In 1983, Kate and her son James Reardon (born in 1976) finally moved permanently to the Fort Collins area so she could complete her bachelor’s degree. Also in 1983, in Calculus class, Kate met her beloved husband Ken Yoder. They were married under the full moon at the mouth of the Poudre River, on September 23rd 1991. Also in 1991, Kate opened the Mountain Healing Center in Old Town Fort Collins. The healing center pioneered alternative options for healthcare. And they pioneered the concept of a non-competitive cooperative. At their peak, there were 17 practitioners at the Center working on a 100 percent consensus basis. Four years to the day the Center opened, it closed, with the members shooting out like dandelion seeds and spreading these concepts of alternative and holistic health choices throughout the Fort Collins area. At that time, Kate became owner and full time publisher and editor of The Healing Path magazine, which had started as the Mountain Healing Center newsletter. The Healing Path was a free newsprint magazine dedicated to freedom of choice in health care and had articles written by and advertising local holistic and complimentary practitioners and therapies. Published for 15 years, in 2007 Kate sold the magazine. One of Kate’s more unusual jobs over the years was her 12 years running the Colorado State Science Fair and becoming the director the last few years. In 1992 Kate and Ken found their dream home, SunHaven in the Stratton Park neighborhood of Rist Canyon. Twenty years later, their beautiful home and everything they owned burned to ash in the High Park Wild Fire. Evacuated while rebuilding for 3 years, the rebuilt SunHaven is a third the size but filled with the same peace, quiet, and joy. Throughout her life Kate loved to travel and experience new cultures. She was always open to adventure! In 2008, Kate’s brother Don moved to Colorado after a devastating diagnosis of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Kate and her mother took over his care, and Kate learned more about the success of a holistic approach to healing and life, as well as the power of careful nutrition. Don is completely paralyzed and voiceless, but he was her inspiration for treating every day and every challenge as an adventure. Kate was diagnosed in 2011 during a lumpectomy that became a mastectomy with stage 4 invasive ductal breast cancer. Kate was told that she had a 12% chance of living 5 years. She replied with her usual “just watch me”. Given those kind of odds, it was easier for her to choose not to go the toxic chemo/radiation route but to turn to the good sense of carefully feeding her body high quality nutrients, not feeding her body sugars and other cancer causing non-foods and paying attention to good detoxification practices. Before beating her 5 year prognosis, the cancer had metastasized into her spine and right lung. Always wanting to share freedom of health choices, Kate created her blog called A Cancer Thriver’s Story chronicling and detailing what she learned on her journey. Kate also co-created The Cancer Thrivers’ support group. For anyone dealing with cancer in anyway, and open to all kinds of ideas for thriving without judgment, that group met weekly for lunch for a few years. Once again her life was blessed with amazing people who battled amazing odds both with conventional medicine, combination of holistic and conventional treatments, and those that chose only the holistic route. Kate was loved by so many and has left a huge hole in their lives. She will always be with us in spirit, if not in physical form. May she dance and fly free without pain.