Youngest Old Cat Lady, a beautiful story with a sad ending

To meet Ashley was to love Ashley. Her life centered around cat rescue, fostering, adoption and what she described as “spreading happiness through mini lions.”

Ashley grew up in Everett. She moved to Los Angeles in her early 20s to pursue a career in acting. Her favorite claim to fame was appearing in a Taylor Swift video.

RELATED: A famous Irish Cat Lady

Her dad, Jay Morrison, was an Air Force pilot in his younger years and later on he worked as a commercial pilot for Fed-Ex for almost two decades. Thanks to her dad’s job, Ashley could travel extensively around the world.

But on April 10th, 2015, her father died by suicide and it was devastating for the whole family.

As some sort of therapy, Ashley and her mom, Cindi, decided to foster three cuddly kittens who needed to be bottle-fed around the clock.

RELATED: Carrots the blind therapy cat

Ashley then began to share photos of these three kittens on social media with friends and family and that’s how the “youngest old cat lady” story began.

RELATED: 5 Ways Cats Can Cure Depression

A few years after her father’s death, Ashley decided to speak out about suicide on her page.

On what would have been her dad’s 62nd birthday, Ashley wrote a long post about the stigma of suicide.

“People just sweep mental health problems under the rug and it’s just not right. People need to realize that it is an illness, just like cancer or any other disease.” she said.

The kittens were so much fun but her mental illness never really went away. Almost eight years after her dad’s passing, Ashley decided to walk on his footsteps.

News of her death blew up on social media.

RELATED: RIP “Youngest Old Cat Lady”

“She was just a wonderful soul but unfortunately had a mental illness that she couldn’t get past. She was always the funniest one in the room, entertaining everybody.” her mom said.

She scheduled her final post before she died. It came out a few days after her death, shocking and saddening her family and thousands of followers.

“It wasn’t really a suicide note, it was just a thank-you and goodbye to her followers,” her mom said.

RELATED: 70 cats are rescued after ‘owner’ shot himself

“We thought it was important to share it to shine a light on the illness that so many are struggling with,” she added.