Bonnie Kay Stroh, 69, of Simms, Texas, passed away on February 25th, 2010 at Christus Saint Michaels hospital in Texarkana, Texas. Kay was born with a congenital heart defect and underwent her first open-heart surgery at the age of 9. She would go on to have two more major heart surgeries in her lifetime and the medical community predicted she wouldn't live to see 50. Of course, she disagreed, and with her indomitable spirit, outlived their expectations by 19 years.
Kay was born on January 11th, 1941 in Bath, Illinois to Earl and Bessie Vaughn...one of 12 children. Those were the days when families were often large and small town life was idyllic. She attended Balyki school in Bath and upon graduating in 1959, she married Michael Irving Stroh from Havana, Illinois.
They lived mostly in Havana for the next 17 years until Michael became a minister. Being unable to bear children due to her heart condition, they adopted their only child, John Michael, in 1969 when he was two years old.
From 1976 until her passing in 2010, Kay lived in 18 different locations across 4 different states as her husband's ministry took him from church to church to church on an average of every couple of years.
Kay was mostly a homemaker although she did take on occasional part-time work to help pay the bills. She loved cooking large delicious meals for family and friends, making ceramic figurines, and quilting.
She was preceded by her parents and 5 of her 11 siblings. She was survived by her husband, son, and 6 siblings.

"Her absence is like the sky...spread over everything."
~~~~~~~~~C.S. Lewis

Mom,
you are the whisper of fall leaves as I walk down the street. You are the smell of certain foods I remember from my childhood. I think of you when I see your favorite flowers or catch a whiff of the perfume you loved.
You were the cool hand on my brow when I wasn't feeling well...the breath in the air on a cold winter's day as we would have impromptu snowball fights. You were the sound of the rain that lulled me to sleep and the colors of the rainbow after the storm had passed.
To me...you were Christmas morning.
You live on inside my laughter and your memory crystallizes in every teardrop I've shed. You taught me every emotion...happiness, sadness, love, anger, excitement, joy, sorrow...and all the while...you hoped I would only know the good feelings in life.
You were the place I called home...the map I followed with every step I took in life. My first love...my first friend...my biggest fan. Nothing on earth can separate us...not time...not space...not even death. I love you Mom and still miss you every single day.
John Michael Stroh