SHEBOYGAN - In the newsroomKimberly Wethal and Amber Levenhagen jokingly promised each other if one of them died, the other would pick out her obituary photos.
Last week, Kimberly had to keep that promise.
Amber, a 25-year-old Sheboygan native, died from injuries caused by an Aug.9 car crashon I-94 near Lake Mills, leaving a void among the people she knew and the communities she covered.
The two friends, co-workers and reporters, whose lives became so deeply intertwined, would work on obituaries forthe Unified Newspaper Group'slocal papers and lamentover bad obituary photos. So they made their pact. Some of the photos Kimberly selected are featured in this story.
Amber attendedSheboygan North High School and worked atBill's Piggly Wiggly in Howards Grove. She played softball in high school and for the Sheboygan Rec. Department.
At UW-Whitewater Kimberly and Amber met and bonded over journalism while working for the school's paper, the Royal Purple.
Amber graduated in 2016 and Kimberly graduated two years later. They were reunited in their journalism careersat Unified Newspaper Group, an organizationthat produces six publications serving the Dane County area.Amber got promoted togovernment reporter for Stoughton and Oregon, and Kimberly followed inAmber's footsteps, taking herjob as a community reporter and designer.
Amber was a local government reporter for the Stoughton CourierHub and Oregon Observer, both in the Madison area.
Kimberly jokes about how little the two would get done when near each other in the office.
"We had a very close relationship and used a lot of sarcasm," Kimberly said.
Kimberly recalled one time when she and Amber were working out at the gym together.
"I was showing her something on my phone as we were walking on the treadmillsand I just ate it."
Amber, like any close friend, never let her forget it,even when Kimberly showed her the bruise she got from the fall.
"She always really wanted to be learning"
Following the loss of her best friend, Kimberly did what any reporter would do. She wrote about it.
As the staff at Unified Newspaper Group began to reassign the stories Amber was working on, Kimberly recognized the qualities that made Amber a good journalist.
"She was someone who really loved to dig into stories," Kimberly said. "She always really wanted to be learning."
Kimberly said her friend's new role reporting on local government gave her plenty of opportunities toput the puzzle pieces together.
"She was someone who just wanted to take everything she got her hands on and make it better," Kimberly said.
Amber was already starting to see success as a young reporter.In 2017, she wassecond-place recipient of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association’s “Rookie Reporter of the Year” award. In 2018, she was recognized by WNA as a rising starin the Wisconsin newspaper industry, receiving the honor of "Future Headliner."
"I trusted her judgment on so many things," said Jim Ferolie, group editor for Unified Newspaper Group. "She was also just a joy to be around."
Ferolie reflected on Amber and Kimberly's banter in the newsroom.
"It would sound to people who had never met them as if they did not get along, but it was fun, you know, self deprecating and insulting humor."
#livelikeAmber
Kimberly said the hashtag #livelikeAmber came from Amber's fiance and embodies everything Amber was about.
"Amber just lived her life in a very vibrant way," Kimberly said.
She described her friend, who she talked to daily, as having a lot of love for people and constant excitement.
One of the only ways Kimberly hasbeen able to reconcile with Amber's death is to take the impact her friend left on her and share it with others, she said. That means checking in on people, having an awarenessof mental health and living a life ofpassion.
Once Amber started a petition to save a 300-year-old tree on their college campus when a developer planned to tear it down to build a new apartment complex, Kimberly said. She gained support but the developer cut the tree down in the middle of the night.
Like the tree, Amber was gone suddenly. But the passion her friends and family have to live the way she did lives on.
A celebration of Amber's life will take place at 2p.m.Saturday, Aug. 24, at the Olson Funeral Home & Cremation Service, 1132 Superior Ave.in Sheboygan. Family and friends are welcome at the funeral homeSaturday from 10a.m. until the time of service.
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Contact Diana Dombrowski at ddombrowski@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @domdomdiana
