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Kerry Keilty, a resident of Spotsylvania, photographed in November as she and her family prepared for the Turkey Trot walk-run, lost her battle against brain cancer on Monday. |
Kerry Keilty loved her family. So much that when she was diagnosed with cancer in September, her greatest concern wasn't herself, but her three sons.
"She told me that she had lived a full life, but she wasn't done," said Bonnie Gorman, Keilty's friend and a Spotsylvania County neighbor of seven years. "We were sitting on the porch and she said, 'I've accomplished everything except finishing raising my children.' She was hoping to see them graduate."
Keilty, 44, lost her three-month battle with brain cancer on Monday.
Yesterday, friends remembered her most for her dedication to her husband, Tim, and her three boys, Timmy, 14, Christian, 11, and Reilly, 8.
"She was just an amazing mom, an amazing mother for those boys," Gorman said. "That's the one thing--she was a great friend and awesome wife to her husband--but her family, those boys, their well-being and happiness was the most important thing to her."
Pam Chiesa, another of Keilty's neighbors in Lee's Hill South subdivision, remembered her friend's spunky attitude.
"She was just a little dynamo--a very petite and very small woman, but her looks were deceiving," Chiesa said. "Her body was not nearly as big as her personality and her energy."
Keilty's outgoing demeanor kept her running from her sons' soccer games, to PTA meetings and Tyson's Corner Center for the occasional shopping spree. Keilty was an experienced shopper--she worked as a buyer for Nordstrom's for eight years.
She was a people person--she made friends with ease, friends that would become a major source of support after her diagnosis.
That circle of friends was apparent last month at the Rappahannock Area YMCA's annual Thanksgiving Turkey Trot. Dozens of family friends set out to raise money to support Keilty and cancer research. Their goal was to raise $25,000.
Neighbors, Tim's co-workers and even strangers moved by her story shattered the goal and raised an estimated $30,000, Keilty's close friend Colby Ciccone said.
The money was donated to the center for cancer research at the Duke Brain Tumor Center in Durham, N.C., where Keilty was treated.
The fight for a cure won't stop with the Turkey Trot. Ciccone said friends and family plan to travel to Durham in April to participate in Duke's Angels Among Us 5-k and Family Fun Walk to raise money for brain-tumor research and to continue to honor Keilty.
"I think she really just lived life to the fullest," Ciccone said. "I think in some respects she was actually grateful--we don't always know what's going to happen to any of us, but to be able to tell the people you love how much you love them and to have no regrets was important to her. I think she died with no regrets."
To reach BECKY PIEDEL 540/374-5000, ext. 5558
