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   The front page of the local newspaper the day before Charity's funeral is shown at the right.  The text of the article is reproduced below.

 

Charity Kohlman, a Fargo South sophomore who died of a heart aliment, was a source of inspiration and a smile.
Something special
By Sarah Coomber
The Forum
   Charity Kohlman did not want people to think she was special.
   But she was.
   She danced with Red River Dance and Performing Company.
   She had a smile that lit up Fargo South High School's halls.
   She was a cheerleader.
   And she made people laugh.
   She rarely missed a day of school until this, her sophomore year.
   On Friday Charity led cheers at a basketball game, and Saturday she became a godmother at her 8-week-old sister's baptism.
   But between Saturday night and Sunday morning, Charity's weak heart stopped. She did not wake up on Sunday, the day she was to be confirmed at Nativity Catholic Church.
   Charity and her mother, Judy Kubalak, had known since Charity was 4 years old that she had a heart condition called dilated cardiomyopathy. But Charity refused to let it affect her life, even though at one point doctors considered listing her for a heart transplant.
   Charity kept her condition a secret, even from close friends.
   "Through it all you'd never know she was sick," Kubalak said.
   Kubalak said she secretly alerted teachers to Charity's condition, in case something happened at school.
   Charity' school counselor, Laurie Schlenker, said Charity was adamant about not being treated differently.
   "She wanted to be known for who she was and what she could do," Schlenker said.
   Charity's cardiologist, Dr. Rodrigo Rios at MeritCare, said no one knows exactly why the walls of Charity's heart thinned and its chambers enlarged, or why she died so suddenly.
   "She was very stable,"Rios said. "It was quite a shock to us."
   Rios said because Charity was active, productive and happy, they opted against a transplant, because that could have lowered her quality of life.
   Schlenker said Charity's sudden death has affected students at Fargo South, and the school seems quieter this week.
   "It was a major shock for a lot of people," she said.
   Staff prepared an announcement to read in every class, and Schlenker visited Charity's classes to meet with students. She said many visited counselors to talk.
   One student said to Schlenker that he thought Charity was very strong to carry the secret of her illness for 12 years and not tell anyone.
   Students set up a memorial to Charity in the hall in front of the scholarship bulletin board. They left poems, candy and flowers, which now fill the Kubalak home. They made a giant banner, where they wrote messages to Charity.
   Kubalak and Charity's father divorced before Charity was 2 years old, and Kubalak said at the time she was broke and knew nothing about raising a daughter.
   She said she always tried to create good memories for Charity. They often ate lunches at Fargo's old train depot and made weekly excrusions to the zoo in Wahpeton, N.D. They went camping. They even watched a space shuttle take off from Cape Canaveral.
   Kubalak bought a little house in Moorhead, where she and Charity usually slept together. Even as a little girl Charity knew her heart was weak and she said she was afraid to die alone.
   "We were more than mother and daughter," Kubalak said. "We were all we had."
   Kubalak said Charity must have picked her day to leave her family. She waited until her mother was remarried and had a baby, and she had become a godmother.
   "She taught me about love, about forgiveness and strength," Kubalak said. "I'm the luckiest person on Earth. God gave me a glorious 16 years."
   Funeral mass will be at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at Nativity Catholic Church.

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