I have hated ALS for a couple years but now I really, really hate it!! On Wednesday, June 3rd, it robbed us of our beautiful Kelly. Kelly, my first true Pittsburgh friend. Kelly, my voice of reason when I needed one. Kelly, my lunch buddy. Kelly, my person that I will miss forever!

Kelly was one of those people that you were so lucky to have in your life. From the second I met her, I knew that and she never gave me a reason to not feel that way. She never ceased to amaze me. Even with all the BS she was going through, she always was more worried about me and things going on in my life than she was for herself. I have so many incidents of that but here are two that are really are stuck in my head….. So I met Kelly at a dinner with Bill & Mark. The boys were deep into “remember when” mode so Kelly and I went into a conversation of our own. We talked about our backgrounds and quickly found so many similarities so the conversation was as if we had known each other for years. I told Kelly about having acquaintances here but not friends like I had at home. She immediately said, “I will be your friend.” and I knew she would. Later that night or the next morning, I get a call from Kelly. She said she needed to apologize. Why did she need to apologize? She felt she needed to apologize because she told me she would be my friend knowing she was going to die on me! Yes, that is Kelly!!! I told her that yes, I was sad that our time together would not be as long as I would want it to be but I would take any second I could with her. The other “Kelly being Kelly” situation was very recent. On May 16th, we lost our sweet Doodle, Andi Grace (See previous blog for Andi scoop). I was and still am heartbroken over that loss. On May 24th, we went to visit Kelly. I walked in and THE FIRST THING she said was “I’m so sorry about Andi.”. OMG, you are struggling every second with every breath and you need to console me. Yup, just Kelly being Kelly.

Kelly wasn’t flashy but could light up a room. Kelly made everyone feel welcome and loved. Kelly loved life, especially life with Bill. They loved going on adventures and I loved hearing about the adventures they had. They should have had many more adventures but flippin’ ALS decided to put a damper on that and then ultimately put an end to it. ALS stole everything from Bill and a lot from the rest of us. F*ck ALS!!

There will come a day when we will smile more than cry when we think of Kelly. She has sent me signs already and I am thankful for that and look forward to many, many more signs. I know Kelly and because of this, I know she will be with us forever!! Kelly and I made a pact. We decided that when we were both “gone” we would haunt all the people that treated us badly during our time on earth. From that day on, we finished our text messages with a ghost icon. So Kelly’s list is now locked but those of you in my world that are afraid you might be on my list, here’s your chance to get on my good side because I know, we will be one hell of a duo in the after life (ha ha ha).

This Sunday, we will get together to celebrate Our Kelly. This Tuesday and Wednesday, we will get together to say goodbye to Our Kelly. For the rest of this lifetime, we will love and miss Our Kelly.