RIP KAROLINA STEPEK: POLISH COP, PINK NINJA

So Mort Castle invited me, years ago, to speak to the kids at Columbia downtown. That's Mort with the moustache next to David Bainbridge. Mort has written dozens of books and edited On Writing Horror, and I am a part of that. I talked about my dad having been a cop and that is why so many of my stories were really based on events my dad and his partners had to deal with over the course of their careers.

Karolina attended that class and was also a cop and we became friends. She got cancer and I would call her while she was getting her chemo treatments. I visited her on Christmas Eve of 2015 after she had received word that there was a bone marrow match from someone in France. Unfortunately, the match did not take, though for 89 days, everything seemed to be going good. We all know the end to cancer stories.

Karolina died two weeks ago Sunday. She was 40 years old. And had the most beautiful eyes.