Standing With One of Our Own: The HNM Family Grieves With Kimberly Trent
Nicholas Mistretta
There are some stories you report. And then there are the stories you never imagined you would have to write because suddenly, painfully, they involve someone you know and care about.
This is one of those stories.
The Headline News Montgomery family is grieving alongside one of our own, Kimberly Trent, as she and her family face an unimaginable tragedy involving the loss of her daughter, Kalina.
A Sports Management major at Coastal Carolina University, with plans of getting her masters at the University of Southern Florida, Kalina hoped one day to turn her love of sports into a career with the NFL.
While maintaining a high GPA, she held several jobs, including positions at the local Starbucks, tanning salon and sports ticket office. She worked hard, dreamed big and seemed determined to make the most of every opportunity in front of her.
Kalina was beginning what should have been one of the most exciting weekends of her life — move-in weekend at Coastal Carolina University, where she was preparing to begin her senior year.
Instead, everything changed in an instant.
A weekend that should have been filled with excitement about a final year of college, new memories and everything that comes with a child reaching another milestone instead became every parent’s worst nightmare.
On Saturday, August 15th, Kalina and a friend were crossing a street when they were struck by a vehicle. Both young women suffered serious injuries. Kalina sustained severe head trauma, her injuries were unsurvivable.
There really are no adequate words for that.
No parent should have to experience something like this. No brother or sister should have to watch someone they love fight through it. In a moment, an entire family’s world was turned upside down.
And for those of us who know Kimberly, it is impossible not to think about just how central her children have always been to her life.
Kimberly has been part of Headline News Montgomery since its inception, but calling her simply a member of our team doesn’t begin to explain what she means to us.
Anyone who knows Kimberly knows how deeply she loves her children and how deliberately she has made them a priority throughout their lives. She travels to see them. She plans birthday trips. She creates experiences and memories with each of them and, perhaps most importantly, gives them what every child deserves most, her time, her attention and her love. If there is one thing Kimberly should never question, it is this: she is all in as a mother, every minute of every day.
That last part has caused more than a few of us to take a hard look at our own lives.
We all love our children. But watching Kimberly over the years has been a reminder that one of the greatest things we can give them isn’t something we can buy. It’s our time. That is what makes knowing what she and her family are going through now so painful.
These are the kinds of tragedies we usually read about happening somewhere else, to people we don’t know. There is a distance between the headline and our own lives.
Until there isn’t.
My own friendship with Kimberly began in an unlikely way — on the internet.
Before Headline News Montgomery existed, Kimberly was an administrator of a local Montgomery community Facebook page. I didn’t know her personally at the time, but I would read her writings and find myself wondering, Who is this person?
In conversations that could easily become contentious, she had an uncommon ability to remain rational and level-headed. She was thoughtful but direct. Polite, but firm. She didn’t tell people what they wanted to hear simply because it was easier. The way she chose her words and articulated her point of view intrigued me.
Over time, an online acquaintance became a friendship, and that friendship became part of the foundation of Headline News Montgomery.
When Kimberly came on board with Headline News Montgomery, I immediately gave her a title: “voice of reason.” It fit then, and it still does. Run something by Kimberly and you will get an answer. An honest one. Never wishy-washy. Never unnecessarily harsh. Just the thoughtful, straightforward perspective of someone whose judgment you trust. the perfect addition to our executive team.
Today, however, there is very little any of us can say that will make what Kimberly and her family are enduring easier.
What we can do is stand beside them.
We can love them.
We can pray for them, think of them, support them and give them the space and strength they need in the days ahead.
And perhaps we can also take something from the way Kimberly has lived her life as a mother.
Make the trip.
Take the birthday getaway.
Create the memory.
Pick up the phone.
Spend the time.
Because the ordinary moments we sometimes take for granted have a way of becoming the most precious ones we have.
Kimberly has spent her life showing her children what it means to love completely, to show up and to be present.
Now, in the most painful moment imaginable, we hope she feels that same love surrounding her.
Kalina’s story does not end here.
On August 22, she gave one final, extraordinary gift. By donating her lungs, heart, kidneys, liver, pancreas, and intestines, she gave others something her own family had prayed desperately for: more time with someone they love.
The miracle we all prayed for did not come in the way we hoped. Instead, through Kalina, that miracle will now be given to other families who are waiting and praying for one of their own.
Before the donation surgery, Kalina was given an Honor Walk, a solemn hospital tradition in which doctors, nurses, hospital staff, family and friends line the corridors as an organ donor is taken from the intensive care unit to the operating room. It is a final gesture of respect for a life being lost and for the lives that may be saved through that person’s generosity. More than 400 people filled the hallways. That number tells a story all its own. In just a few short years, Kalina had touched an extraordinary number of lives.
Kimberly, our hearts are broken with yours. We are here, we love you, and we will continue to hold you and your family close.
Nick, Jeanne, Maryann, Dale and Nicholas
Photo Credit: Nicholas Mistretta/headlinenewsmontgomery.com