Catherine "Kaydee" Bobbitt

Kaydee Bobbitt left this life on April 3rd, 2020 at age 34, going to join her beloved brother Luke who died last year and her godmother Lin Romano who died in February. Kaydee was a smart, funny, and glamorous young woman with many gifts. Her life was absolutely focused on her family. As a single mom raising three kids by herself, Kaydee carried imposing financial and emotional burdens all the time, but she always felt all that was her responsibility and that no one else should have to listen to her troubles. So with immense determination she took a cheerful, funny and responsible self to work from age 18 on, while at the same time finishing high school in three years with a baby, earning her house through Habitat, finishing two years at DMACC , caring for three energetic kids at home and trying hard to keep her house clean. She did her best to keep all that to herself and never asked for help unless it could absolutely not be avoided. She would never set foot outside her house unless she looked right, and the same went for the kids. Kaydee was born into the Catholic Worker community and learned those values as thoroughly as she learned to walk and talk. She taught her kids never to pass up a homeless person without giving them some money, even when you don’t have any. Over the ten years she had her house, she shared it with a series of people she knew and cared about who needed a place to stay. She could not tolerate any form of racist, anti-gay, anti-poor or any other similar comments or conversations and she would let you know. Kaydee’s life was fiercely focused on her children and her dreams were all about family – she was dreaming of taking them on a vacation and making plans for that, taking them college hunting, getting married someday and living in a peaceful neighborhood with a yard. When she was killed she had just bought bikes for the kids and a pull cart for the baby and she was excited that they were all going to go for a bike ride the next day. Kaydee leaves behind broken hearted and stunned family and friends from North High School, Blank Children’s, the City of Des Moines and myriad other people who knew her in other ways. Her spirit lives on in her children, who are picking up the slack now because the baby needs them, and though they all know they are going to need some help themselves down the line, they are taking care of business first. We thank the community for all the support you are showing us and for reflecting back to us the love and energy Kaydee brought to the world.