katy
gerke

Katherine Flowers Gerke of Thetford Center, Vermont, died on July 2, 2013, at home and surrounded by her family, after a courageous and uncomplaining battle with lymphoma.

Katy was born on August 25, 1950, in Bethesda, Maryland, to Ann and Woody Flowers. Because her father was a naval officer, the family moved often, living in Maryland, England, California, Virginia, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, before settling in Wayland, Massachusetts. Her senior year of high school, she lived in Marseilles, France, as an exchange student. While there, she lived with the Alloing family, whom she came to love. The two families remained close and visited each other dozens of times over the next 45 years.

Katy studied English literature at Smith College, graduating in 1972. She spent her junior year abroad in Scotland at the University of Saint Andrews, where she met her best friend and future husband, Paul Gerke. Engaged before they came back to the United States, they married a year later on August 5, 1972.

Katy was a woman of remarkable energy. She was easily identified in a crowd by her wild, curly, red hair, often telling a story and surrounded by smiles. Already married with two children when she started at the Medical College of Ohio, she returned to medical school only a week after delivering her third son. She completed her radiology residency and neuroradiology fellowship at University of Michigan, never letting long hours at the hospital keep her from dinner with her family or reading to her children before bed. Among other books, she managed to read her three young sons all 1200 pages of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. They loved it so much that she then read it to them again.

Katy loved radiology. During 25 wonderful years living in Toledo, Ohio, she practiced radiology at St. Charles Hospital, and her colleagues remained lifelong friends. When called to the hospital at night to read emergency studies, she would often bring her children and share the findings with them. She and Paul moved to Vermont in 2001, where she practiced at Alice Peck Day, Valley Regional, Mount Ascutney, and New London hospitals for 11 happy years, until illness forced her to retire. Her enthusiasm inspired one of her sons, and several of her sons' friends, to become radiologists.

A lifelong traveler, she took her family as far afield as Peru, China, and Egypt, miraculously picking up enough of the local language to get by wherever she went. After becoming interested in French cuisine as an exchange student, Katy cooked Julia Child recipes relentlessly until Paul pleaded for plain hamburger. In fiction and film, Katy's tastes ranged from Anna Karenina to Indiana Jones. She also loved opera. As a board member of Opera North, she particularly enjoyed hosting young singers at her home during the summers; many became close friends. At family gatherings, singers gathered around the piano, as Katy played from the hymnal or The Fireside Book of Folksongs, a favorite from her youth. Good pitch was optional, but participation was not.

Katy was generous with her time and energy. She felt great compassion for lonely people, devoting herself to visiting elderly members of the community. She was an active member of Saint Michael's Episcopal Church in Toledo and the Norwich Congregational Church.

A fiercely devoted and loving wife, mother, and grandmother, Katy made it clear by action and word that her family was the most important thing in her life. She is survived by her devoted husband of 40 years Paul of Thetford Center, her sons, Matthew, Luke, and Benjamin, her mother Ann Flowers, her brothers, Peter Flowers and Chris Flowers, and a wonderful cadre of spouses and grandchildren. She will be dearly missed by all.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to any of the following:

• Norwich Congregational Church
• Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
• The Carter Center