Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Chapter 3 - 2011

At some point in the future (hopefully within the NEAR future), I will write this story.

But for today, I want to let you know of some good and positive turns-of-events in Terry's life:  Terry and Ellalina finished the process of purchasing a new home throughout this summer of 2011; their escrow closed not too long after school began in August, a busy time for any parent of school-aged children but a particularly hectic time for school administrators (such as is Ellalina)!  As the 2011/2012 school year began, the Keller family were busy-busy-busy packing and cleaning and moving and relocating to their new home in the country. 

Throughout this process, I have commented to Terry on more than one occasion that he looks more robust and more healthy and more alive these days than I have ever known him to be - suspecting in my own heart and mind that the physical exercise required to move one's household has surely contributed to the spark of life and extra zest I have sensed in him.  In response, he told me something very interesting, so much so that I believe it to be noteworthy within this story:  Terry told me that he had seen in his mind's eye where the hospital bed would be placed, and that he had pictured himself dying in the house in which his family had been residing prior to the new purchase and relocation.  And that in the move from the Templeton house to the house-in-the-country, he has left that death-ness behind.  "Hooray!", I say!  I wish and pray that the Kellers' new home will be a place of life and energy and health and vitality and creativity and strength and love and harmony and peace and grace, for all who abide and for all that enter! Yahoo!!  :-)

In other news, I am also happy to report that recent scans at Stanford Medical Center indicate that 4 of the 5 tumors on Terry's liver (located last May-ish) have shrunk!  They seem to have responded positively to the targeted chemotherapy treatment he took in late May; now the Keller family awaits scheduling for that 5th tumor to be blasted with another such treatment.  Perhaps this happy news is also part of the reason that Terry is looking and feeling more alive and robust!  Yippeee some more!

The end, for now.  Stay tuned for much, much more, whenever I get around to writing this book!  Also, for some photographs, since "A picture's worth a thousand words".  :-)  (Here is a photo taken last June.)

Friday, June 10, 2011

Chapter 2 - Original Diagnosis - 2008

This chapter will explain the events surrounding Terry's original diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in 2008.

Here is a photo of Terry at his 45th birthday party in March 2011.  It seems to be a miracle that he has survived pancreatic cancer for this many years - hooray for a 45th birthday!  Stay tuned for me to write this in full.  Thank you for your patience :-).

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Chapter 1 - Terry's Life Before Cancer




Terry Keller was born in Atascadero on March 22, 1966, the first of two sons, to Terry, Sr. and Carol Keller.  His mother told him as a child, "You're Indian" because Terry's father is of Native American descent; and so young Terry proudly embraced his heritage and was happy to play his proper role in the "Cowboys and Indians" games as a child.  Additionally, from a young age he had been interested in the martial arts; he was particularly influenced by celebrities Bruce Lee and Billy Jack, and something significant began when for his thirteenth birthday Terry's parents purchased martial arts lessons for him.  Six years later, at the age of 19, Terry opened a dojo in Atascadero. The following year he married his high-school sweetheart, and it wasn't very long before a daughter Jade and then a son Terry (I hear him referenced as "Little Terry") were born to Terry and his wife.  Terry also discovered an appreciation for art during his adolescence, and in the late 1990s he opened and operated a Native American Art gallery in Cambria, California.  By that time, he and his wife had divorced and he had met Ellalina Emrich, whom he married on December 31, 2000.  

Bruce Lee - Action Photo

It was in recent months at a school function of Georgia Brown Elementary School, "Bingo Night", that I began to ask Terry questions about his formative years and about his life before cancer.  "Bing!"  As I listened and imagined, a metaphorical light bulb lit up in my head when Terry told me that he liked to fight, both professionally in the dojo as well as scrappy-fighting at the local bar.  He described a particular scene to me of getting into a fight with someone over the curvy, long-flowing-blonde-haired Ellalina; and I laughed to imagine Terry duking it out over the pretty girl as Ellalina ran to the parking lot, long blonde hair streaming behind her.  (Now that she is the principal of a local school, she handles herself with appropriate decorum).

As I listened to Terry's story, it was also this "A-ha!" moment that caused something to fit together in my mind.  I have only been acquainted with Terry for a few years, since his diagnosis of cancer; I didn't know him in his healthy, robust, energetic and vivacious days.  But the fact that Terry has lived this long - 5 years past his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer when the doctors told him that he should expect to live for only 2 months more - and the scene in my mind of Terry fighting professionally in the dojo and scrappin' at the local bar, made sense to me.  Perhaps one of the reasons that Terry has beat his cancer for this long is that he is a fighter.  Literally.  :-)

In addition to Jade and Terry, Terry Keller also has a daughter Lexi with his wife Ellalina; and a grandson Spencer; and another grandson due to be born in July of 2012.  His life is filled with people that love him.



Sunday, May 1, 2011

Introduction to "Don't Shut the Door"


Terry, Ellalina, and Lexi Keller
8-24-2010

This is the preamble to the story of Terry Keller's experience with cancer.  This is how I have come to know and communicate Terry's story.

2008 - Before I had met or become friends with Terry and the Keller family, I saw his name often in the weekly bulletin of Harvest Bible Church.  Pam Kenyon is an across-the-street-neighbor of the Kellers and a friend of mine, and she requested prayer for Terry because he had been diagnosed with and was being treated for pancreatic cancer.  She would share with me her compassion for Terry and Ellalina and Lexi, and tell me stories of her friendship with the Kellers and the healing she hoped they would receive.  It was yet 2 years before my own husband would be diagnosed, but even then, my heart was drawn to cancer patients and their families.  And so I prayed.  I wrote Terry and his wife Ellalina and their daughter Lexi's names on what has become "My List", and I prayed.  In driving around town, when I would pass Keller Williams Realty on the corner of Spring and 13th streets, I was prompted to remember the Keller family (and others on My List), and to pray.

At that time, my 4-year old son Caedmon was attending the Bearkittens' preschool program; and when Mrs. Brenda the teacher began to make the Bearkittens' community aware of the health issues of the family of one of the Bearkittens, Lexi Keller, I made the connection between Terry Keller, friend of Pam's and prayed for by Harvest Bible Church, and Terry Keller the father of Bearkitten preschooler Lexi Keller - the same family!  Then when I noticed the (large and loud) Solarponics diesel truck arriving for preschool drop-off and pick-up, and I saw the quiet man attending to his daughter Lexi, I prayed. 

2010 - Almost 2 years after his initial diagnosis, following months of surgeries and chemotherapy treatments and other experiences (to be disclosed in this book - keep reading!), Terry was declared cancer free. Two months later, my husband DJ was diagnosed with colon cancer and underwent surgery and the beginning of what would be 6 months of chemotherapy treatment. When Terry and Ellalina learned of DJ's diagnosis and treatment for cancer, they came to us and offered their support and experience and listening ears, having walked the road ahead of us of cancer and its treatments.  It was then that I was introduced to Terry formally, even though he didn't know I'd "known" him (or had known about him and thought about him and prayed for him) for many months.

Our lives became increasingly interconnected as we began to spend time together and with another family within the Bearkitten community, the Lewis', who also were experiencing cancer.  Reese Lewis, mother of Logan and Brooke, had been diagnosed with Stage IV melanoma in November 2009.  It was discovered in June that the cancer had re-emerged in Terry's body, and he began again the process of diagnosis and decision-making and treatment.  As it happened, Terry's wife Ellalina was in the process of taking on the administrative position of Principal at Georgia Brown Elementary School, the same institution at which my son Caedmon was headed for kindgergarten in the fall - along with Lexi Keller and Logan Lewis.  With the tenacity and energy that is Ellalina, she orchestrated many gatherings among our three families, in order that we would offer encouragement and love and friendship and understanding to each other.  I named it "The Cancer Club". 



Logan Lewis, Caedmon Van Bigelow, Lexi Keller

Our friend Reese Lewis became increasingly ill as the year passed; our families became quickly a tight-knit group in one sense.  Reese passed away in December, and in a conversation between Terry and myself a few days later, he told me that he wanted to write a book, to share with whomever will listen the story he has to tell.  And I told Terry, "I will help you!" 

And so, by way of introduction, this is my small part of the story, how I have come to know and be friends with Terry Keller.  The rest is his story.  He wants you to know what has led to the miracle of his life in the face of cancer; he wants you to be encouraged, and to learn as he is learning to not give up; he wants to reach and affect as many people as possible in positive and palatable ways.  He wants anyone who will hear and listen and consider, "Don't Shut the Door."