Each of the lives lost when Colgan Air Flight 3407 came crashing down in Clarence Center on Feb. 12, 2009, left a hole in the hearts of their loved ones. It's a void that will never be completely filled.
One of the names honored 15 years later: Kevin Johnston. He was just 52 when his life was cut short, but in that time he built a legacy centered around family. In addition to that, his widow Kathy says he left behind something unexpected — a gift that continues to inspire his family.
"You don't forget,” Kathy said. “I think of Kev every day."
Love is hard to define.
“Love is more than just a word,” said Kathy. “I think everything you do in your life and everything he did showed his love.”
It’s a feeling. A decision. An action.
"And for someone to find everlasting love is truly a gift,” she said.
Kevin and Kathy Johnston’s love story began with a meeting through mutual friends in the late 1970s.
“He was going to be my forever,” Kathy said. “I knew that. We both knew that.”
It grew into a happy marriage, three daughters and a life in suburban Buffalo.
“Kevin was a planner, and he was concerned for us and looked out for us,” she said.
Kevin was a health and safety officer for a German-based company. He spent a lot of time traveling, and was coming home from a business trip to New Jersey the night of Feb. 12, 2009. Wanting to make it home early, he boarded a flight back to Buffalo.
He never made it.
“There was many a morning I woke up and said, ‘dear God, give me the strength to get through this day.’ Because I didn't know if I could continue on,” said Kathy.
It was one of those days soon after the crash that Kathy found something she didn’t expect.
“Obviously I was lost, and then we found a folder,” she said.
Kathy found passwords, financial documents and life insurance policies Kevin had purchased or was eligible for — but she also found something even more precious.
“He left two little [sticky] notes in the folder. One was for me and one was for our three daughters,” she said.
The notes were too personal for Kathy to show, but she gave this description:
“Kevin was giving me permission to go on with my life. He even gave me permission if I wanted to meet someone else sometime in my life that I had his blessing. Just to find someone who would treat me well. And for for my daughters. The note basically said always be there for each other. The three daughters, always look out for other.”
And each note ended with an, ‘I love you, Dad’ with a smiley face and mine said ‘I love you, Kevin,’ with a little smiley face. His message was that we have to keep on living. And that is something that I will forever be grateful and proud of for myself and my girls.”
Kevin left more than these words of comfort; he left a vision for a place for his growing family to gather: a log cabin in the popular ski resort village of Ellicottville, completed a year before his death.
“So that was love,” said Kathy. “It ends up that’s really a legacy for us and our family. That place is very, very important to all of us.”
Kathy’s daughters are all married. She has seven grandchildren — one of whom looks pretty familiar.
“When [my grandson] Liam was born, I saw Kevin in him so much,” she said. “Out of all the grandkids, he is definitely his papa."
And in case you’re wondering, like Kevin would have wanted, Kathy has found love again, a man she met six years after Kevin’s death.
“I had what I had, and I didn’t think I deserved another chance at love, and I just didn’t consider it, and then it just happened and it worked,” Kathy said. “But I went back to what I was told that time: your heart can open wider. So I gave myself permission to do that.”
Permission to keep living — a final act of love still being felt 15 years later.
“These are the cards I was dealt. This is what happened in my life. And I had 28 years with my husband and I said, ‘some people don’t have that kind of love in a lifetime.’ And I had 28 years,” said Kathy. “I truly felt that helped me move on and that was truly a blessing.”