This weekend, I lost one of my best friends in the world. Excelsior Springs lost one of its most ardent supporters. And the young people of our community lost perhaps the greatest cheerleader any of them will ever know. I'm talking, of course, about the loss of Kim Simmons, sports editor here at the Standard. As you probably saw on the front page of today's edition, she passed away suddenly and unexpectedly Friday night, and she left a gaping hole here that will likely never be filled. Over the next few issues, you're likely to see a lot about Kim on this page and elsewhere in the Standard. If you knew her, you'll understand why. And if you didn't know her, I hope that somewhere in all these words being written about one of the kindest, most dedicated people to ever sit in the newsroom here at the Standard, you'll come to understand -- just a little bit -- why Kim Simmons was so important to all of us. I'm certainly not the only one who has a lot to say about the marks Kim left on everyone who knew her. There will be others over the next few issues of the Standard who have their own thoughts to express, and if we were to ask those who were touched by Kim's kindness to line up, the queue would stretch for miles. But each person has his or her own memories to share, and by sharing a wide variety of viewpoints we can get a clearer picture of our friend than any of us ever could singly. We're a close-knit family here at the paper, just three people in the newsroom and only about two dozen in the entire building. But Kim would have stood out even in a huge corporation. Her gentle ways tended to draw others to her. I have known Kim for longer than she has worked for me here at the Standard. Our families first intersected at church, and the connection was undeniable. When Kim and her husband Dave's oldest child, Jason, died of injuries suffered in a car crash in the late 1990s, I felt the loss, too. Jason's younger brother, Wes, was in my brother's graduating class. Their "baby" sister, Jenny, bagged my groceries at Price Chopper. The blow dealt to this loving family by Jason's death would have been irreparable were it not for the unshakable faith that is shared by each of them. Here at the Standard, Kim overcame what she viewed as shortcomings to become one of the best sports writers we had seen. She had no newspaper experience, and wasn't really a sports fan outside going to see her kids play football, volleyball, track, etc. But she was a fan of young people. She may have been writing about sports, but she was covering youth. She tried her best to leave no one out of her stories, and maintained an optimistic outlook whether "her teams" were winning or losing. She branched out and covered the "support" groups, too -- band, cheerleaders, dance squad, etc. And when she erred, as we all do, she felt the consequences of the mistake just as keenly as the kids and their parents. Her family came first, though. Before our eyes, Wes grew into a tall and handsome young man. He and his wife, Amy, gave Kim and Dave their first grandchild, Andrea. Jenny turned from a lovely teenager into a beautiful woman, and she and her husband, Eric, produced a darling daughter of their own, Bella. Just last week, Kim and Dave and the rest of the family were rejoicing at the birth of their first grandson, Wes and Amy's son, Jason. And Jenny had just told her mom that she was expecting, too, with a due date in October. So much joy, and we here at the newspaper shared it all with her. When she left on Friday, everything was business as usual. She and Dave went out to eat Friday, and Kim covered Courtwarming with the same focus on the kids that she has displayed since her first day on the job here. The call about the tragic loss came Saturday morning, and I felt as if I had been punched in the stomach. I still have an aching sense of loss, and I know that many others -- her family most of all -- are also suffering. We'll make it through, of course. Kim's unflappable faith taught me that things happen for a reason, even if we can't understand the underlying purposes of life's trials. Dave and Brian Rice, the publisher here at the Standard, said it best. "She's with Jay (their oldest child's nickname) now," Dave said. "We'll find another sports writer," Brian said, "but we'll never find another Kim Simmons." We miss you already, Kim.