Caitlin Elizabeth O'Hara died Tuesday, December 20, 2016 in the ICU at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, Pittsburgh, two days after receiving a perfect-match lung transplant that came too late for her. Born with cystic fibrosis, she had waited on the lung transplant list for too long: two years and eight months. One of the most important lessons that can come out of her death is how vital is the need for organ donor awareness. In lieu of any flowers or gifts, please register today to be an organ, tissue, and cornea donor. (The DMV "organ donor" sticker is not enough.) And please help to dispel the wrongheaded myths about donation. Organ allocation is one of the most tightly regulated and ethical institutions in the country. core.org/register

Despite lifelong hospitalizations, including a major surgery at age 11, Caitlin lived a full life of school, travel and work, and enjoyed the gifts of true friendships and loving family. She graduated from the Fay School, Southborough, MA and St. Mark's School, Southborough, MA. She then attended George Washington University and Northeastern University before finally graduating, magna cum laude, from Boston College in 2006 with a degree in Art History, an intense passions of hers.

She created a thriving freelance graphic design career for herself when it was clear that her health limitations meant she would not be able to work a typical 9-5 schedule. In December 2014, when she became too sick to function normally, she relocated from Boston to Pittsburgh. Despite being mostly house-bound, she worked tirelessly, from afar, to help create and run the Friends of the Prouty Garden; an advocacy group Boston Childrens Hospital's world-famous healing garden.

She was feisty, fiery, compassionate, and wise. As her health worsened, she never complained, but only tried to find the good and the humor in each day––and there was plenty. She intensely loved art, music, good writing, good films, and her beloved little Yorkie, Henry. Lately, her medical struggles had made her appreciate the importance of public health and public service. She hoped that a successful transplant and recovery would have allowed her to study for a Masters of Public Health, begin a new career, travel unencumbered the way she had always dreamed of doing, and plan a future in Maine with her devoted boyfriend, Andrew Sutryn.

She is survived by her heartbroken parents, Nicholas and Maryanne O'Hara, and by large family in both Massachusetts and Ireland. The family will conduct a private service next week, to be followed by a public celebration of Caitlin's life, at a later date to be announced.

One of Caitlin's last posts on the family's 9LivesNotes.com blog contains some of her wisdom:

There is so much suffering in the world … so much. My belief though at least is – the world was not meant to always be fair or fun or easy.  The world is teeming with life, and death, and pain, and Donald Trump even haha. We just have to keep living. Step back. We are just tiny beings. There are lobsters living at the bottom of the ocean for over a hundred years. They have just been sitting down there through all of our lives and wars and lives before us. We aren't that much different from lobsters really if you pull back a little. All part of this teeming painful wonderful world where so much is just luck. But we can choose to be kind, and to keep trying — we have the power.

"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. " Leonard Cohen

—Caitlin, November 20, 2016