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."