Remembering Simone one year later

Simone Carolyn Shel Upshaw, July 09, 1995 – Oct. 05, 2013. Simone Upshaw, 18, best known for her amazing unique cupcakes, quick wit and penchant for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, died Saturday of untreatable sarcoma. Simone graduated from Pacific Crest Community School where she excelled in theater, writing, art and cupcakes. She had planned an ambitious year at Portland Community College that included first-year Japanese, one of the many steps she’d taken to fulfill her dream of traveling to Japan this spring. As a native Southeast P-towner, Simone was known by neighbors and local shop-keepers as sophisticated (they didn’t know about the My Little Pony obsession), sweet and very polite. But, behind the well-insulated doors at The School of Rock, she belted out Stevie Wonder or Christina Aguilera with a gusto that belied her composed demeanor. Simone’s complexity cannot be fully described in these few simple paragraphs. The kitchen is full of giant tubs of unsalted butter, enormous bins of granulated sugar, every imaginable cake tin and unanswered requests for vegan unicorn cupcakes. The saddest thing is not remembering what she accomplished or how many lives she touched in those few 18 years, but to imagine, given who we knew her to be, what greatness, what beauty, what love has been left undone.

3 comments
  1. Tina Lilly said:

    How little we do know indeed about the angels around us. How precious to behold them when we are able.

  2. Thomas Moss said:

    This is a lovely tribute, Katrina — helps me understand the impact she had on all in your family. And the picture made her very real to me, despite never meeting her. And she seems to live on in the memories you all have of her. love, tm

    ________________________________

  3. pits47 said:

    thank you for sharing this bit of Simone. I’ve been thinking of her and your family this past week … sadness colors even the morning sun of a beautiful fall day on the Bay. sending lots of love xxoo

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