Emma Lou Kelly

A very sweet lady died today. She was my friend.



A couple of years ago, my local dry cleaners told me that they no longer had a seamstress and referred me to Lou Kelly, a local lady who ran a sewing business from her home. I called her and asked if she could alter a dress for me and she replied that she would be happy to and told me to come by anytime. Her front yard was trimmed and manicured and her house was very neat and pristine with not one thing out of place. I will always remember the first time I met her as the first thing that I noticed were her glasses. I would quickly learn that they were her trademark. She was very pleasant and that one dress led to a friendship. Over the next two years, she was always there when I needed her and altered everything for me. A few bathing suits, a bridesmaid dress, numerous pants and my wedding dress. She quarreled at me when I begged her to sew the rear end of my favorite jeans for the third time. She insisted that I get rid of them. I always just begged..... "Just one more time, Lou!" We would talk about everything from family to husbands to life and she loved her occasional trips to Vegas with her daughter. She often gave me "motherly" advice and she even cried with me when I had a miscarriage in May.

The last thing that she altered for me were curtains for my front living room in early October. I have two small windows and I knew that I would never find a set of curtains for them, so I took the old ones down and took them over to her along with the new ones to see if she could make me a new set. When I went in she didn't seem right. I asked her if she was ok and how had she been doing. It turned out, she had a heart attack in July and was still not feeling 100 %. One evening, when her chest started hurting, she took a couple of aspirins. When the pain did not subside in 30 minutes, she took another one. After that did not help, she woke her husband, Marvin. I only met him a couple of times, but he was just a sweetheart who adored her. The doctor told her she saved her own life with the aspirin. After a few days in the hospital, she was home and anxious to go back to work. The doctor told her to just go back slowly when she felt like working. She told me that it might take her a couple of weeks, but she would get them. On November 1, she called me and told me that they were ready. She was now on oxygen and still not feeling well. She said that it was the craziest thing that she has been healthy her whole life and all of a sudden, she felt like she was falling apart. A recent chest x-ray showed a mass. In the back of her mind, she explained, she knew what it was and she would know her results in a few days. I assured her that she was too healthy for cancer and that she would be fine. I hugged her and told her that I would check on her in a few days. That was the last time that I saw her.

This morning, I was working and she just came to my mind. I thought I would call and check on her. When I called, a lady answered the phone. I told her who I was and that I just wanted to call her and say hello. The lady on the other end of the line said "I'm her granddaugher, Mindy, and I'm so sorry to tell you, Mrs. U., but she died early this morning and I am sorry to have to be the one to tell you." My heart sank and tears quickly filled my eyes. I am not usually emotional , but I just cried for a minute at my desk. She waitied on the other end. I apologized for her loss. All I could think about in that one minute of silence was "What happened to her in just those 3 weeks?" My mind could not process what I had just learned. I thought about how much she loved her family; how much they loved her and how talented she was. And, then it hit me; I had not called her back like I told her that I would. I did not get to tell her goodbye. I had not told her how much I liked our conversations and what she meant to me.

Her granddaughter told me that she succumbed to cancer. It was in her lungs and spread to her bones and they learned at the hospital that it had spread to her brain. The previous day, they took her to the hospital and she had passed at 4:30 this morning.

I don't think that I will forgive myself for not calling her. What kind of friend was I? All I know is, I will miss our talks. I hope she is at peace and thank God that she did not have to suffer like I have seen so many people with that hateful, unforgiving, dreadful and ugly disease. I hope those last 3 weeks that she lived, she was not in pain and afraid. I will miss her and I hope God comforts her family.

May she rest in Peace.

Emma Lou Kelly
1941 - 2008
Emma Lou Kelly, 67, of Huntington, W. Va., passed away Friday, November 21, 2008, at St. Marys Medical Center, Huntington. Funeral services will be conducted at 2:00 pm Monday at the Reger Funeral Chapel by Pastor Willie May. Burial will be in Spring Valley Memory Gardens, Huntington. She was born August 8, 1941 in Big Chimney, W. Va. a daughter of the late Samuel Copen and Martha Bea Crowder Copen Harpold. She was a retired Supervisor at Corbin Limited. She owned and operated Lous Sewing and Alterations of Huntington. Survivors include her husband of 49 years Marvin Kelly, a son and daughter-in-law John and Kim Kelly of Kenova, W. Va., a daughter and son-in-law Robin and Mark Linkfield of Pedro, Ohio, four grandchildren Kelly Ann Redmond of Pedro, Ohio, Mindy Clark and her husband Andy of Chesapeake, Ohio, John M. Kelly, II of Huntington, and Jacob M. Kelly, stationed with the U. S. Navy in Norfolk, Va. and his wife Brittney Kelly, four great grandchildren Andrew, Dylan and Coleton Redmond and Hunter Clark, two sisters and a brother-in-law Jan Cummings of Charleston, WV and Pat and Oshell Carnell of Big Chimney, WV; a special cousin Judy Crowder Dodson and her husband Bill of Farnham, Virginia and many special nieces and nephews. Friends may call from 5 to 7:30 pm Sunday at the Reger Funeral Home. Condolence may be made to the family at www.timeformemory.com/reger.