Kari Elizabeth Ginther Boggs was an amazing woman — wife, daughter, sister, niece, cousin, friend. She was born with a rare form of muscular dystrophy, Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA), which constantly put more limits on what she could do, but she still loved life!
She loved arts and crafts as a grade schooler. She made creative gingerbread houses and wreaths at Christmas and baked tons of cookies for friends and family.
She played the piano. All of this was taken away. And she moved on to other things.
She was active in high school as a Running Start student, designing websites and doing advertising.
She graduated from Grays Harbor College, traveled to Atlanta to get her service dog, Barney, and the two set off for Central Washington University in the fall of 2003. By March of 2006 she had her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and, what the heck, stayed another quarter and got her Bachelor of Arts in Law and Justice!
Now what? Work didn’t pan out so she turned to another love and began breeding and showing miniature horses — from her wheelchair. Everything from junior high on was done from a wheelchair!
Kari, with her horses, traveled all over the Pacific Northwest for regular miniature horse shows, to Reno for the regional shows, and to Texas for the World Shows. She won a lot of ribbons and trophies!! I believe Tigger took 5th in a class in Texas, which is horses from all over the world! (I guarantee Kari is leaning over my shoulder trying to correct me — I forever got some detail wrong! She was the brains of the outfit!)
Eventually, her condition robbed her of the ability to work with her beloved horses. She settled into the family home and on Jan. 17, 2015, met the love of her life! They married that summer and had some amazing times together.
People with FA usually die of heart failure during their teen years or 20s. Kari turned 40 on Dec. 3, while in the hospital in Portland. Sadly, for her mom and husband, she never really returned from the hospital. Her body made it home but her mind was struggling through a fog of confusion caused by her failing heart.
Our beautiful, sweet girl left us the evening of Jan. 29.
She did not lose her battle! She won! She’s free to do things herself, not wait for someone else to do it for her! This may be only figurative. We don’t know, but we do know she’s safe, healed and in a very good place!
Kari was met in Heaven by Jesus, her dad Greg Ginther, her famous horse Rudy whom she drove all over Riverview in the ’90s, Barney; an army of cats, dogs, and horses; and an army of family and friends that have gone on before.
She leaves her husband, Travis Boggs; mother, Beth Ginther; brothers, Chris Ginther and Danny Ginther with his wife Jackie and their son Lason; uncles, Mike Turner and Paul Turner with her aunt Alison Turner, and lots of cousins and friends.
Years ago as she struggled with some new limitation from her condition, her mom reminded her that for those of us that love Jesus, our time on this earth is just the blink of an eye compared to the eternity we have in Heaven. Kari’s complaint, “but Mom, this is such a long blink of the eye.” Sweet girl, your blink is over. The rest of us will finish our long blink of the eye and finally join you. Hug everyone for us, pet the critters. We love you.
A celebration of Kari’s life will be held Saturday, Feb. 18 at 12 p.m. at the Raymond First Baptist Church, 913 Duryea St., Raymond, Washington.
Monetary donations can be made to the Raymond Ambulance Fund or Make-A-Wish Foundation.
