MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Memphis woman says it’s not the fact that her car was broken into while parked Downtown that bothers her, it was what the thief took.
Katrina Dorse says she walked to her SUV on Friday after work to find her window smashed and her bag taken. Inside that bag was a laptop that held precious memories of her son who passed away.
In 2016, Dorse lost her son Kellen. He was only 5-months-old and was born with heart issues.
She kept the pictures and videos of her son on her laptop.
The same one that was taken from her on Friday.
“Kellen is no longer with us, so that laptop holds the last physical connection that I have to my son,” Dorse said.
Dorse says although Kellen’s life was short he fought hard.
“He lived a very tough five months, and we documented that from birth until when he passed. That laptop held those things,” she said.
After Kellen passed away, Dorse found hope in starting “Big Heart,” an organization dedicated to helping families going through the same things she went through with her son.
“They took things that simply can’t be bought or replaced,” she said.
Aside from stealing the pictures and videos of Kellen, the bag the thieves took also held Valentine’s Day cards made by Le Bonheur heart patients. They are cards the children took pride in making in anticipation of an upcoming “Big Heart” event.
Dorse has filed a police report, but she’s also hoping the person who took the bag will have a change of heart.
“I’m not angry with the person, I am hurt by the action. I don’t seek to pass judgment on them. I don’t know what they were thinking at the time, but the pictures on that laptop are important,” Dorse said.
As a last ditch effort, Dorse posted a heartfelt post on Facebook. The post has been shared more than 2,000 times.
“I just thought it would get shared a few times, and I least tried you know. I wanted to know. I tried to get those memories back.”
She says when Kellen was alive she lived by the saying “fight like Kellen,” and, no matter what, she’ll always fight to make sure his memory lives on.
