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It must have been 15 years ago that I met Kat. I am guestimating because I think Grace was around 11, Harper around 8, and Adelaide around 4 when Kat gave them art lessons. This is based on the masterpieces I preserved of their budding artistic brilliance, which was questionable, and the expertise and excellence of their teacher, which was not questionable at all.

I remember walking into her house in Faith Addition and noting the creative atmosphere. It was an older house she had rented during a separation from her then-husband. Her cotton-topped young daughter flitted in and out of the garage-turned-art-studio, and there was a glorious silver German shepherd named Zeus who seemed to be Kat's spirit animal in the way Mugsy is mine.

She mentioned her son Jesse, an aspiring musician who had just moved to college, and another older daughter who seemed like more of a best friend. The pride she took in her kids and the closeness they obviously shared were an easy connection for us. We had the same certainty of their value; the precious gifts they were to us and the world. It may have surprised others when Jesse Welles of Ozark, Ark., was nominated for 4 Grammys this past year. It did not........

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