Community bids farewell to Katie Grace
The DVMS gym was filled to capacity last Sunday when more than 500 turned out to celebrate the short life of 13-year-old Katie Grace Groebner who lost her fight against pulmonary hypertension on Christmas Day. Friends, family and community members remembered a brave little girl with an infectious giggle and big eyes who faced her disease and her future with optimism and joy.
Katie was six when she was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension—a rare disease that went undiagnosed during her early years. Knowing Katie Grace would need medical care beyond what they could get in their home state of Minnesota, the family sold their home, packed up everything in their RV and headed to the Bay Area and Stanford’s Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital. John Groebner had a job waiting in Concord and the family settled in Clayton where they were embraced by the close knit congregation at Clayton Community Church. For the next six years, Katie Grace’s mother, Kathy, learned as much as she could about pulmonary hypertension, all the while watching as the disease was slowly claiming Katie Grace’s lungs. By June 2014, when Katie Grace was near death, the family received a middle-of-the-night call from Stanford—they had a match. On the day before Father’s Day, Katie Grace received a new heart and two healthy lungs in a rare and risky multiple-organ transplant.
Initially, she thrived. Just weeks after her surgery, she was swimming and playing without the cumbersome backpack that had contained her oxygen and life-sustaining drugs. The playground was her favorite place. Sleepovers with friends and pizza parties were common.
But, the success was short-lived. Early in the summer of 2015, she began having breathing problems. Infections set in and by September, Katie Grace was back in the hospital. Her body was rejecting the new lungs and she was too sick to survive another transplant. Katie Grace breathed her last on Christmas Day surrounded by her family.
Just as they had embraced Katie Grace during her life, the CCC community and the Groebners’ friends stepped up to organize her memorial.
CCC pastor, Shawn Robinson officiated the two-hour service that included prayer, poetry, reflections and music by the CCC Worship Team, CVCHS Women’s Ensemble, CVCHS alum and Katie Grace’s close friend, Kyle Metz.
Katie Grace was born July 16, 2002 in Mankato, Minn. She is survived by her parents, John and Kathy Groebner, sisters Savahna Hope Groebner, Summer Nichole Hineline and Kristiena Faith Manbeck and her grandmothers Eileen Kelly and Janet Groebner.
Memorial donations can be made for pulmonary hypertension research at 222.phaware.global/donate. Financial gifts can also be made to help the Groebner family during transition. Go to www.gofundme.com/katiesfarewell.
The family also encourages those who can to sign up as an organ donor.