Meet the Models: Dan Strafford

Meet the Models: Honoring Kimberly – A Husband’s Tribute on the Runway

This October, one model’s walk down the runway will not just be a step—it will be a living tribute.

He’ll be walking hand-in-hand with his daughters, honoring the life and legacy of their beloved wife and mother, Kimberly—a woman whose presence was as powerful as her love, whose laughter filled rooms, and whose quiet strength guided her family through unimaginable moments.

Memory: The Sound of Her Laughter, the Depth of Her Listening

“There’s a long list of things I think of when I remember Kimberly,” he says. “Her real laugh—it was like a shout. The way she read to our kids like she was performing Shakespeare. The way she listened—truly listened—because she wanted to understand you, not just respond.”

Kimberly was fiercely loyal, deeply empathetic, and endlessly kind. She had a spark that made everyone feel seen. And in the middle of her own struggles, she never stopped being a light for others.

Experience: A Missed Show and a Life-Changing Diagnosis

The couple had planned a day together—a rare midday date to see the musical Six in Cambridge. Instead, that day unraveled into something entirely different.

“We thought we’d have lunch and hold hands at a matinee,” he recalls. “Instead, we spent it at the hospital, moving from mammogram to scan to scan. We missed the show, but promised we’d see it another day.”

That day never came. Instead, within 48 hours, they were thrust into a new and devastating reality. A radiology tech let slip what no one else had yet said aloud: the cancer had already spread. Kimberly was facing Stage IV metastatic breast cancer.

“We drove home separately that day. Twenty-five minutes. The longest twenty-five minutes of my life.”

Kimberly never cried—not that he saw. She faced what came next with astonishing grace. Her focus became her family: how to stay as long as she could for her girls.

Help: The Things You Can’t Fix, the Ways You Can Show Up

He stepped in fully—cooking, cleaning, shuttling kids, managing the household, making sure the right snacks were always on hand. But the biggest shift came in how he learned to simply be there.

“We were both fixers, but this wasn’t something I could fix. I could only experience it alongside her.”

Through it all—through treatments, exhaustion, uncertainty—Kimberly kept showing up with love. So did he.

Legacy: A Tree, a Photograph, and a Thousand Stories

Kimberly’s impact continues to blossom, quite literally. A tree now grows in a park behind their home, planted in her honor—a living, blooming reminder her daughters can visit, year after year.

A friend from her cancer support group had a photo of Kimberly and their girls framed before she herself passed just months later. These are the tangible legacies, yes—but the real legacy, he says, is in the stories. He’s been quietly recording them ever since.

“There’s a Google doc filled with moments—big and small—that I hope shows just how extraordinary she was. Even when she didn’t think she was.”

Reason to Dance: For Her, For Them, For All She Taught Us

This year, he will take to the runway not for himself, but for her. To celebrate her life. To keep her memory alive for their children. To remind them—and all of us—that even in absence, love endures.

“She was the best this world has to offer. She loved teaching. She loved theater. She loved our girls. I want them to see her in everything we do—and I want to show them that we can celebrate her, even now.”

And if Kimberly were here to see him on the runway?

“She’d laugh. Loudly. She’d think it was hilarious—and beautiful. And I think she’d be proud.”