Glimpses of 13-year old Mary Lydia Karth — her questions, hopes, & dreams — from a letter she wrote to herself two weeks before she died from truck underride. 
She also wrote: “I hope . . . I’m living every day like it’s my last.”
You were, Mary — so full of joie de vivre. Missin’ you.
Mary models a wedding dress Mary had fun modeling Rebekah’s wedding dress as it was sewed step-by-step…she will never wear her own.
AnnaLeah Karth: Precious one gone too soon; we remember you on your birth day, when we welcomed you into this world. May 15, 1995 – May 4, 2013
(After putting together this list of videos which capture memories of our birthday girl, I realize again how intertwined AnnaLeah’s and Mary’s lives were. The youngest two sisters of nine siblings.)
AnnaLeah Photo Memorial Slideshow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-dUs0gKAT0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BIpdLAPxb4
It is well with my soul https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMPmNsvL33Q
Particularly poignant photos of AnnaLeah, Mary, & another young girl, Bethany, having water balloon fun on July 30, 2007. What makes it heart-wrenching is that, within 6 short years, they would all lose their lives in crashes. See more of their stories here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2mDYj-SS1o
Camp Concordia 2007 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfG33KjoUnY
Moments (30 seconds) with AnnaLeah and Mary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyYIWaipo7w
A Day at the Beach with AnnaLeah & Mary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPHoPQugCvk
AnnaLeah & Mary; A Short Film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mP-bueIJ7A
An Afternoon at the Duck Pond https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdMMg6o4XiQ
Simply AnnaLeah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU_SE1fGia8
Farewell to AnnaLeah & Mary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpKdHfc_xFY
AnnaLeah Visits Historical Durham AnnaLeah and her dad shared historical interests. Jerry took her to Durham in the Spring of 2013 to see historical sites. AnnaLeah borrowed Mary’s camera to capture the memories. Background music by her Grandpa Waldron on his dulcimer.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8SMzNrsDj4
AnnaLeah’s Confirmation AnnaLeah thoughtfully shares a few words from her heart…about her faith.
See the statement which AnnaLeah wrote when she was 13:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY393AmtB8E
AnnaLeah’s First Year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwPSDNWIodU
AnnaLeah Trims the Blinds While Mary Plays https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwnmGzFzmEI
My Favorite Present https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDiBDZIj2mM
With Hope, We Carry On https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp7acA3CI34
AnnaLeah Karth wrote a statement of her faith when she was 12 and read it aloud on December 28, 2008. See you in glory someday, AnnaLeah. We miss you! https://t.co/2ekKl9CW48 pic.twitter.com/jwdAicFMxj
— Marianne Karth (@MaryandAnnaLeah) March 26, 2018
AnnaLeah Karth wrote a statement of her faith when she was 12 and read it aloud on December 28, 2008. 1/6 pic.twitter.com/V502nQPQcy
— Marianne Karth (@MaryandAnnaLeah) March 26, 2018
AnnaLeah Karth wrote a statement of her faith when she was 12 and read it aloud on December 28, 2008. 2/6 pic.twitter.com/JulAE0N2Ab
— Marianne Karth (@MaryandAnnaLeah) March 26, 2018
AnnaLeah Karth wrote a statement of her faith when she was 12 and read it aloud on December 28, 2008. 3/6 pic.twitter.com/y8KxzY8ySs
— Marianne Karth (@MaryandAnnaLeah) March 26, 2018
AnnaLeah Karth wrote a statement of her faith when she was 12 and read it aloud on December 28, 2008. 4/6 pic.twitter.com/BVn5E3x51h
— Marianne Karth (@MaryandAnnaLeah) March 26, 2018
AnnaLeah Karth wrote a statement of her faith when she was 12 and read it aloud on December 28, 2008. 5/6 pic.twitter.com/lMlLxYMvgh
— Marianne Karth (@MaryandAnnaLeah) March 26, 2018
AnnaLeah Karth wrote a statement of her faith when she was 12 and read it aloud on December 28, 2008. 6/6 Another thing she said before she died:
"You will never be worthy of proclaiming Christ's name,
but Christ's name will always be worthy of proclaiming." pic.twitter.com/KCVxoFAOxT— Marianne Karth (@MaryandAnnaLeah) March 26, 2018
I wanted to mark AnnaLeah’s books so that they will always be a part of “her library”. Her sister Susanna picked out this bookplate & just finished putting one in each book. Now they are ready to donate.
Her 600-book collection. . . many of them from a used bookstore where she had volunteered. She hadn’t read them all yet. A precious life ended too soon.
Death By #Underride
#stopunderrides
Allison’s Angel Gowns takes donated wedding dresses and creates outfits for babies who don’t go home from the hospital. I just received a message that Deb has taken the wedding dress which I sewed for Rebekah Karth Chojnacki in 2013 and made this beautiful little dress.
This is the message which the seamstress sent to me:
I’m sorry to be invading your FB page but I just wanted to thank you for allowing me to create angel gowns in honor of your beautiful daughters. I need to apologize for the delay, You see, your dress touched me in ways I never expected. I know the pain of losing adult children and I had a hard time getting past my own grief when I worked with your dress which was the very reason I jumped at the chance to sew for you. I think of you every time I sit at my machine. I wish you and your family peace Friend of the heart, Deb
Here’s the full story: A Story of Four Sisters & A Wedding Dress; Bittersweet Memories Transformed Into a Gift of Comfort
My heart is overflowing.
We launched an Interactive Underride Crash Story Map earlier this week. We have only just begun to add links for the thousands of underride tragedies which are too well remembered in the decades of neglect of this problem. Many families may not even have realized that they lost their loved one because of preventable underride.
See more underride tragedies at Underride Crash Memorials and on our Interactive Underride Crash Map. To add more information on this story or to add other underride crashes to this map, send an email to underridemap@gmail.com; use this Interactive Underride Crash Map Crash Location Input Form.
Here is the map.
See more underride tragedies at Underride Crash Memorials and on our Interactive Underride Crash Map. To add more information on this story or to add other underride crashes to this map, send an email to underridemap@gmail.com; use this Interactive Underride Crash Map Crash Location Input Form.
I can’t tell you how it felt to look online and find my daughter’s book collection all thoroughly catalogued. I knew that she had a LibraryThing account where she had kept track of her extensive set of books. But never until just a few moments ago had I looked it up.
Most of her books are boxed up and in storage because our current living situation did not have space for them. In a few weeks, we will be moving to a house where we will be able to organize her books on shelves like she would have wanted. So I had asked her brother and sister recently if I could somehow look her account up — thinking I would need a password or something. Lo and behold, they said that she was identifiable by looking up the author Rosemary Sutcliff. AnnaLeah, they said, owns one of the most extensive Rosemary Sutcliff collections in the world (at least among the LibraryThing membership).
Having a few moments to sit down tonight at the computer while I was actually thinking about it, I decided to try and find her account. She did not use her own name but I was able to sleuth it out, and I found her! I found my daughter.
I found the three books which she was reading when she last posted on her account — quite probably just before her death — knowing AnnaLeah. They were perhaps even with her in the car on that trip to Texas.
She read 47 books in 2013. I even found the last book she ever finished, or at least recorded, on May 2, 2013 — two days before our crash. The Storm by Frederick Buechner
How many more would she have read in that year? How many would she have read in her lifetime? How many more books would she have added to her collection? What books might she have written? What literary worlds might she have created for others to enjoy?
Such a bittersweet treasure to have this part of her who is no more — who had so much more living to do.
AnnaLeah’s 30 Category Booklist
AnnaLeah’s History Reading List
AnnaLeah’s Book List for Danelle
And I’m quite sure, that one of AnnaLeah’s “friends” on Library Thing was her sister, Mary, whose collection was much smaller and not so thoroughly catalogued — but just as treasured, I know. A member since July 12, 2012.
Here are some books — probably from her sister AnnaLeah — which Mary received on her last birthday — August 6, 2012:
Of course, I love the photoshoot which AnnaLeah staged of Mary reading one of AnnaLeah’s books (which Mary had not actually read):
To be honest, I hate the fact that I spend almost every waking hour figuring out ways to move the needle on comprehensive underride protection. I also hate the fact that AnnaLeah & Mary have no more chances to create new memories while the rest of us go on with our lives — getting older and making new memories without them.
I hate the fact that no one effectively took on the underride problem in time to let AnnaLeah & Mary live to see another day after their underride crash on May 4, 2013. And it keeps on happening to other families: The front of Padilla’s car was forced under the rear of the tractor-trailer. Man Killed in Thanksgiving Day Crash on Beltway in Virginia and this one 3-year-old girl dies from injuries in crash on I-15 near Moapa.
That is why I am a mom on a mission to make truck crashes more survivable. The only thing is. . . I can’t make it happen alone.
Here are some of my favorite holiday memories with AnnaLeah and Mary. . .
Happy Thanksgiving https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.549565838459268.1073741923.464993830249803&type=1
Mary Cranberry https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.549573781791807.1073741924.464993830249803&type=1
Mary would be watching the Thanksgiving Day parade. https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/549586845123834/?type=1
Tutus for the whole family https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/551011044981414/?type=1
Advent 2012…Sleepover https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.555655971183588.1073741930.464993830249803&type=1 and https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.555655971183588.1073741930.464993830249803/555656811183504/?type=1
Broken Candy Canes https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/556124954470023/?type=1
Mary Christmas Card…Karth Family Photo “Christmas Card” 2012 created by Mary https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/556151264467392/?type=1
Christmas Memories with AnnaLeah & Mary https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=559954657420386&id=464993830249803
Mary Christmas Angel…The glory of the Lord shone round about… https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/560141440735041/?type=1
Mary, did you know? https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/560630257352826/?type=1
Mary Christmas Angel–One: Jesus is the Heart of Christmas https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=560713557344496&id=464993830249803
Mary Christmas Angel–Two: Are we done yet? https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=560952533987265&id=464993830249803
Mary Christmas Angel–Three: O Holy Child of Bethlehem https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=560953360653849&id=464993830249803
Mary Christmas Angel–Four (Finale): https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=560953753987143&id=464993830249803
Christmas Letters from AnnaLeah & Mary https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/562522363830282/?type=1
Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 1996: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=562705110478674&id=464993830249803
Everything’s Different This Year https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/563077863774732/?type=1
Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 1998: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=563082103774308&id=464993830249803
This year & last year; Before & After: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=563186590430526&id=464993830249803
Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2001: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=563193017096550&id=464993830249803
Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2002: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=563666620382523&id=464993830249803
Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2003: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=564344183648100&id=464993830249803
Herod’s Slaughtered Innocents: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=564688433613675&id=464993830249803
Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2004: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=564807693601749&id=464993830249803
Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2005 https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=565873553495163&id=464993830249803
Notice: The Last Thing On The 2013 Calendar (as written by Mary) https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/565931740156011/?type=1
“Though the Fig Tree Should Not Blossom” https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=565938886821963&id=464993830249803
Christmas Letters from AnnaLeah & Mary, 2005, cont. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=565870523495466&id=464993830249803
Happy New Year! (Y2K) (AnnaLeah takes care of baby Mary) https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/565950123487506/?type=1
Christmas Letters from AnnaLeah & Mary, 2007 https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=566452906770561&id=464993830249803
Christmas Letters from AnnaLeah & Mary, 2008 https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=566833013399217&id=464993830249803
Christmas Letters from AnnaLeah & Mary, 2008, continued https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=566844333398085&id=464993830249803
Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2009: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=566944503388068&id=464993830249803
Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2009, continued https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=566946103387908&id=464993830249803
Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2010 https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=568828166533035&id=464993830249803
Christmas Letters From AnnaLeah & Mary, 2012: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=568835126532339&id=464993830249803
MLK Holiday Observed: https://www.facebook.com/464993830249803/photos/a.465869083495611.1073741828.464993830249803/572826719466513/?type=1
The Power to Captivate & Comfort: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=566439636771888&id=464993830249803
I am the survivor of a terrible truck crash. I am the mom of two daughters who did not survive. The difference? Their part of the car went under the truck; mine did not.
In the aftermath, I found out that the rear underride guard could have been made stronger to withstand the crash so that AnnaLeah and Mary might — like me — have been survivors of a terrible truck crash. I learned that, if effective underride protection was installed on trucks, we could save hundreds of people who die every year when a truck enters their occupant space. So now, I am a mom on a mission to make truck crashes more survivable.
View some of the thousands of tragic Underride Stories at the Interactive Underride Crash Map
How did it come about? In October 2012, Jerry and I moved to North Carolina with the three youngest of our nine children. Four of the nine were going to college in Texas. When they all came home for Christmas break, we got the news that our oldest daughter, Rebekah, had just gotten engaged. We planned a big trip to Texas in May for the celebration of a wedding, four college graduations, and two family birthdays (AnnaLeah turning 18 & Vanessa turning 4).
Mary baked a seven-layer engagement cake to surprise Rebekah when she arrived for the holiday. Rebekah asked me to sew her wedding dress and we shopped for a pattern and material. In the ensuing months, Mary (13) served as a model for her sister’s wedding dress, and AnnaLeah sewed a little bride’s dress for a surprise birthday present for Vanessa.
On May 4, 2013, we packed our Crown Vic and headed for Texas. But the trip did not go as planned and it turned out to be AnnaLeah’s and Mary’s last journey they would make on this earth. We came upon slowed traffic on I-20 in Georgia (from a fatal crash two miles ahead, two hours earlier). We slowed down, but a truck driver did not — hitting our car and sending it into a spin so that the car went backward into the tractor-trailer ahead of us. The rear underride guard failed to withstand the crash and the back of the car went under the trailer.
AnnaLeah and Mary were in the backseat. AnnaLeah died at the scene and Mary a few days later from her very serious injuries.
In the four years following that day, we have been working hard to turn tragedy into advocacy — including the drafting of the STOP Underrides! Bill soon to be introduced in the U.S. Congress to mandate the installation of technology to end these preventable tragedies.
In memory of Roya, AnnaLeah, and Mary (and countless others!), let’s pass comprehensive underride protection legislation in order to STOP every kind of Underride tragedy!
More memories of Roya, AnnaLeah, & Mary — our precious ones, gone too soon: The Naming of an Underride Bill; Out of the Mouths of Babes
Stay tuned to HOW YOU CAN HELP get this bill passed once it is introduced in the near future (within three weeks).
Sign & Share the STOP Underrides! Bill Petition here: Congress, Act Now To End Deadly Truck Underride!.
