Nestled in a quiet part of Frankfort lives a couple who experienced tragic loss, and struggles that have compiled and changed.
Their resiliency remains the only constant.
David and Margery Rigsby, both 65, first met at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque at the freshman mixer. They earned degrees. They got married.
Then, in 1999, their world was upended when their 26-year-old daughter, Catherine Anne Rigsby, died.
The Rigsbys were suspicious about the cause of her death and spent years fighting for justice in Florida, where she lived.
Catherine’s brother, Justin, was only 14 when his sister died, and he remembers his father’s persistence.
“He was practically living in Florida during that time,” Justin says.
David and Margery regret not being good parents to Justin after their daughter’s death because their grief consumed them. Though time has passed, David says: “It’s the new normalcy, not like the old normalcy.”
But hardship continued.
In 2007, David was diagnosed with stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Most stage 4 cancer patients don’t survive, but David harbored a strong will to live. Chemotherapy impacted his immune system and his short-term memory.
“He doesn’t remember yesterday, but he remembers every detail of our daughter’s case,” Margery says.
The couple copes differently, but share determination to go on with their lives.
