Tuesday, June 26, 2018
We first moved to the Laurel Run area of Bruceton Mills in 2007, and our neighbors right away started telling us about a very kind man named Willard Kelley who lived nearby and would often plow the neighborhood. In the winter of 2009, I was pregnant with our second child, and I was a very high risk pregnancy. 2009 was a very bad winter with more snow than we had seen for a very long time. Even though we had 4 wheel drive vehicles, the snow was just too much and we became trapped in our house. Mr. Kelley heard about our situation and immediately came on his tractor to plow us out so we could get to the hospital if needed. The day he plowed for us was one of the coldest days we ever had in Bruceton, and I was having early contractions. Mr. Kelley was our hero and did this despite the bitter cold. He was an amazing and generous person. Mr. and Mrs. Kelley both checked in on from time to time after that. I recall one Christmas in 2010 we stopped just to tell them Merry Christmas and give them our card and we were invited into their home and were treated like family. They even gave little teddy bears to our children. We moved to Morgantown in 2011. One day after we moved I was in my office in Morgantown, I was having a hard day - and Mr. Kelley stopped by unexpectedly to say hello and to let us know that they were still thinking of us. I needed his kind words and smile that day as well as that terrible 2009 winter. We'll never, ever forget Mr. Kelley or his kindness for all his neighbors near and far. Our very deepest condolences to his family.
