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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment