There was so much Catherine “McKay” Pittman wanted to do, her best friend wondered how she’d ever have time for it all.
“She wanted to do everything,” Becca Reynolds told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution late Thursday. “She wanted to go on mission trips with her nursing, help disadvantaged people, sick children. She had the biggest heart, and she wanted to help everyone she could.”
Pittman, 21, and Reynolds, 20, had been best friends since their freshman year at Georgia Southern University, and both were leaders in Alpha Delta Chi, a Christian sorority. In one week, Pittman’s reign as president was to end, and in a candlelight ceremony, she was to pass the job on to president-elect Reynolds.
But Wednesday morning, Pittman was one of five nursing students killed in a multi-vehicle crash on I-16, near Savannah.
“I just can’t believe I have to fill such big shoes because she was one of the greatest people I’ve ever met,” said Reynolds, who is from Loganville.
A soccer player at Milton High School, Pittman graduated in 2012 and headed to college, eager for the next step toward her dreams. Statesboro is four hours away from her north Fulton home, but Pittman went home as often as possible to visit her parents and watch her younger sister’s soccer games.
Every morning Pittman called her mother. Every morning, except Wednesday. Sherrin Pittman knew something was wrong, she told Channel 2 Action News.
Down in southeast Georgia, Reynolds, an education major, was at an elementary school when she heard about the crash. By lunchtime, Reynolds learned her best friend had died.
“It completely tore me up,” Reynolds said.
On days she worked at the school, Reynolds and Pittman often made the same trip on I-16. It could have been her in the crash, and Reynolds said she feels guilty that she’s alive.
“I have been praying, ‘Why wasn’t it me instead of her?’” Reynolds said. “We get on the same road, the exact same road. I wish it was me, instead of her, every single second.”
Reynolds believes her friend’s death was God’s plan, and she’s finding peace knowing Pittman is in a better place. In recent weeks, Pittman had been baptized, and the two had had a very candid conversation about what heaven would be like. Pittman had asked if her friend thought there would really be pearly gates and if horses would be in heaven.
But selfishly, Reynolds says her time with Pittman was too short. The best friends planned to grow old together, if things went as planned, and their future children would also grow up together, Reynolds said. Instead, Pittman’s family and friends are preparing for her funeral.
“Even though I’m sad, I know that she saw the pearly gates,” Reynolds said. “You know now, McKay, if there are horses.”
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