BY ERIKA ANDERSON

STAFF REPORTER

ATLANTA--Richard Kessler and his wife, Kathy, were married just one month shy of 23 years when she boarded Valujet flight 592 on May 11, 1996. The plane crashed into the Florida Everglades at 500 mph en route from Miami to Atlanta. There were no survivors, no bodies or remains.

Mrs. Kessler and her husband had been in Miami for the May 10 graduation of their daughter Grace from the University of Miami. Mr. Kessler, an attorney and chair of the Corporate and Banking Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia, had left Miami early in order to attend a business meeting on Sea Island near St. Simons.

Kathy, also an attorney, had been elected chair of the largest section of the Bar, the General Practice and Trial Section, in January, 1996.

Kathy was not scheduled to take the 6:15 p.m. flight, but she took it in order to get back to Atlanta early so she could surprise her fellow Our Lady of Assumption Church (OLA) parishioners at a parish dinner.

Kathy was very involved with OLA. She helped with the outreach ministry, was an associate member of their St. Vincent De Paul Conference and served on the parish finance council for several years. She was also the treasurer of the dinner club and helped other parishioners in any way she could, her husband said.

OLA had held a special place in her heart ever since Kathy, who had been baptized in the Congregational Church and raised Methodist, became a Catholic and was baptized at the OLA Easter Vigil in 1988. She wanted to become Catholic, her husband said, so she could receive Holy Communion with him and become fully involved in parish life.

"She always participated to the fullest of her capabilities," he said. "But when she became a Catholic she threw herself into parish life. She became a full member of the parish. She was present to everyone."

"Kathy treated every individual as if he were the most important person in the world," Kessler said.

Kathy, her husband said, was a "strong, in-your-face lady who stood up for what she thought was right," no matter how unpopular her opinion might have been.

In November, 1991, Kathy called her husband at his office to tell him that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. The doctors, fearing the cancer had spread, felt that immediate surgery was necessary to remove her left breast and lymph nodes. The doctors found that the cancer had not spread to the rest of Kathy's body. She would, however, still have to have chemotherapy. Through it all the Kessler's parish joined them in prayer and support.

"They came to the hospital to visit, and they brought Kathy communion," Kessler said. "People would come no matter what they were doing. It was a wonderful experience."

Kessler said that the cancer crisis changed their lives, but it was Kathy who helped her husband and daughter get through the ordeal with her sense of humor and strength.

November, 1996, would have marked fifth year of Kathy's remission from the cancer. The Kesslers' lives were finally getting back on track and going well. They decided to celebrate, beginning with Grace's graduation.

When Kessler heard of the news of the plane crash and his wife's death, he wanted to know why it happened.

"All I could think was 'why,?'" Kessler said. "She had gotten through the cancer, my practice was successful, and everything was really looking up."

The parishioners at OLA immediately reacted to the news of Kathy's death. Rita O'Brien, director of religious education at OLA and a friend of the Kesslers, said "We were all completely devastated. Everybody just grieved together." O'Brien said that the parishioners just tried to be there for the Kesslers. "We didn't know what to say or do," she said. "We just held them and prayed for them."

Kessler said that the people of OLA helped his family in incredible ways. "They rallied to us like we were their brothers and sisters," he said. "Our parish dropped everything, put aside everything, just to take care of us."

Knowing someone who died in the crash, said, made the public tragedy really hit home."It put a face on a tragedy," she said. "It made the impersonal news reports and stories very personal."

Kessler said that the support of the parish was amazing.

"We don't have any blood family in Atlanta, so we really built a family at OLA," he said. "When my family came down after Kathy's death, they couldn't believe the outpouring from our parish. They said that would never happen in their parish."

But O'Brien insists that the parishioners of OLA really learned from the Kesslers during the tragedy. "I think they gifted us as much as we gifted them," she said. "In their loss they helped us grieve. They seemed to be ministering to us. They were extremely brave."

Because the Kessler's would never get Kathy's body back, there was no grave to visit and no place to lay flowers. The OLA finance council came forward and donated a brick with Kathy's name on it and placed it in the Garden of Memories outside the church.

Kathy's death has taught the parishioners of OLA, as well as Kessler, about the importance of each one to the other.

"We have no idea how united we are in baptism, how close we are to each other, or how important we are to one another," O'Brien said. "We don't realize what our shared gifts mean to others. There are no unnecessary parishioners."

Kessler feels that above all else he has learned to live in the present. "When you live in the present, you are present with God. I can't live on May 11, 1996. I could try, but I've got to live today," Kessler said. "You have to live in the present and be present to one other."

On May 11, 1996, before he heard the news of his wife's death, Kessler was driving to meet his associates for dinner. Suddenly it began raining. As he looked up he saw a huge thunderhead with a half-rainbow coming out of its top directly over the marshes of Glynn County. The thunderhead, Kessler said, seemed to be shaped like a person, with the rainbow jutting out like a left arm.

"Kathy was left-handed and I used to call her 'old leftie,'" Kessler said. "Looking back, it was like she was saying she was with God, and she was okay. When I drove back past the marsh after I heard the news, it had completely stopped raining and it hardly even looked as if it had rained."

"Kathy loved the marshes and used to take pictures of them. The marshes of Glynn are very similar to the Everglades," he said. "I found out later that four other people saw the same thing I did."

At the three hour memorial service that Kessler held for Kathy at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, two of the Kesslers' friends who had been away from the church for several years were so moved by the service that they are now very active in their parishes.

The rainbow, the renewed faith of friends, and other signs, Kessler said, have strengthened his faith in God.

"I don't believe there's a God. I know there's a God," he said.

"Now I have evidence."

Today, a year and one-half later, Mr. Kessler still wears a green ribbon on his left lapel, a symbol of his love and support for Kathy and the other victims of the crash.

Kessler will always miss his wife. The grieving process, he said, is an infinite process. "I've learned that you never get over this. You just learn how to live with it and how to deal with it," he said.

O'Brien said that the parish is also still feeling the loss of Kathy."We lost someone very unique and special in Kathy. The community is not the same," she said. "There is an empty space where she was. It showed us how much of a difference one person can make."

Kessler said that the outpouring from the parish and friends has made the tragedy more bearable."This whole thing has been the worst experience of my life, but the most awesome," he said.