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KennyStrong, Knoxville, TN (2025)

05/26/2025

This was at Blount County's Memorial Day program. They read the names of the veterans that passed away in the last year. It was very emotional but it was a beautiful service.

Rest easy, Marine. Semper Fi!

Day 114 of losing my love

05/23/2025

Kenny was extremely proud of his service in the military 🪖 He served in the United States Marine Corps from 1984-1988. His name will be read at Blount County's Memorial Day program tomorrow morning.

The VA has determined that Kenny's death was, at least 50%, if not more a result of the Camp Lejeune toxic water. We knew this was probably the case before he died. Even though Veteran's Affairs has been really good to us, I was so angry about this. Kenny being who he is said, "Jill, I signed up to serve my country. I knew that I could die for my country when I signed up. I just got an extra 37 years that those that died in combat didn't get. I'm thankful for those years." Who thinks like that? Kenny does! He's the epitome of valor, strength and commitment. I strive to have his grateful heart ❤️

Pictures about the Memorial program and Kenny's time as a Marine but as he said "Once a Marine, always a Marine."

Day 111 of losing my love

05/17/2025

Sweet story about Kenny for anyone not on our personal pages . I usually work at New York orientations in the summer for incoming exchange students. Kenny decided he wanted to help one year. Let me preface this by saying that orientations are exhausting. You spend hours at the airport, you have to get up at 2am to take kids to the airport to fly to their host families and you walk several miles a day. Long days with very little sleep. It's all worth it because you get to see New York and you get to see the excitement in the student's faces but it is tiring. We always have a group chat with the chaperones. Kenny sends this picture from the airport in the group chat and it says, "I'm living my best life ever. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do this". He said ALL THE TIME that he's living his best life ever. He was so thankful for everything, no matter how small. I strive to be more like him.

Day 105 of losing my love

05/11/2025

This is a letter that was read at Kenny's service from our neighbor, Tonia.

Jill and Kenny are my neighbors. I'm a widow, my husband passed away almost three years ago.
I felt led to place a Blessing Box in our Springbrook Community on Ramsay street. I had the Blessing Box, but no one to put it up for me. I noticed that Kenny had put together a whole shed at their house, so I asked Jill , do you think Kenny would be willing to put up the blessing Box?" He came over and accessed the project. It ended up being more work and taking longer than expected but it was PERFECT, he reminded me so much of my Darrell's work. Everything was measured a few times and lined up beautifully..
Our Blessing Box stays busy and serves so many people. I'm thankful I got to know Kenny better.

Tonia Priddy

I have such special memories of Kenny. Sometimes they make me laugh, sometimes they bring a smile to my face, sometimes they make my eyes leak and sometimes they make me cry uncontrollably screaming at him, at God, I'm sure my neighbors have heard. What I wouldn't give to have one of our talks again. You often take for granted everyday life things.... Eating dinner, watching TV (Kenny always asked questions while we were watching TV), kissing each other good morning or good night, pillow talk, checking on each other throughout the day and him always giving me his ETA of being home. The fact that he's no longer here will always cause me pain but he holds the pieces to my heart so I'm hopeful that one day the pain becomes something I carry with the joy that he brought me. That they will go hand in hand. Right now, it's just unbearable pain. He was my person and brought me oh so much joy and will forever be in my heart!

Here's some photos of him building the blessing box. Tonia has dedicated it to her late husband, Darrell and to Kenny. If you feel led to donate some non perishables, the address is 1810 Ramsay St. Alcoa, TN. It gets a lot of traffic.

Day 99 of losing my love

05/07/2025

Thank you to everyone that came out to celebrate Kenny on his first heavenly birthday and to show your support. We had over 80 people come and share stories, some I had never heard. He would have absolutely loved all the attention. Kenny's death is sad, painful and excruciating but his life was anything but that. He was filled with love, life and laughter wherever he went. We miss you so so much! We all love you!

04/30/2025

Does anyone have Co****le boards, horseshoe rings, volleyball, badminton, any outdoor games that I can borrow for Sunday's celebration for Kenny?

04/29/2025

For those of you who don't know, I'm having a 60th birthday party/celebration of life for Kenny: Join us for a cookout on May 4th at 4:00pm at my house to celebrate Kenny's 60th birthday! Bring a dish to share (something to go with Hamburgers and hot dogs and/or a dessert) and RSVP so we know how much food to get. Please also bring a chair! Hamburgers, hot dogs, drinks, etc will be provided. We'll be sharing memories and celebrating Kenny's life, which was such a great one!

I have one request: I'll be doing a trivia game about Kenny but I don't want it to be just things I know. If you have something about Kenny that you think is funny or that people may not know, please text or private message me. Even if you can't make it but have something, send it anyway. I don't want everyone to have all the answers!

04/27/2025

🎶Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things🎶

A few of Kenny's favorite things:

1. Family, first and foremost. He loves his girls. He loves the boys. He loves Camden, our grandson and fishing buddy. He loves Lainey, our granddaughter whom he said was the most beautiful girl in the whole world. He loves his siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, mom and me! He just loves!

2. He loves our Sunday School class. Even though we all went our different ways, we felt this group was special.

3. He loves hosting and coordinating foreign exchange students. It was nothing to walk in and have 8 students in our house at once, all speaking different languages.

4. He LOVES to travel....cruises, overseas, Islands, other states...it didn't matter!

Day 84 of losing my love

04/20/2025

My first Easter without you. I wrote something the other night when I got home. It gave me a little hope. I spoke to my friend, Lindsay, and she said there was a brief moment of "Jill" on the phone. A glimmer of hope where I thought, I'll carry him with me wherever I go. I'll let that guide me. I woke up the next morning and BAM, a ton of bricks. One of the worst days I've had since his death. What if I continue on with this life and I lose him along the way? What if I start to forget pieces of him? How it feels when he holds me? How he smells? The crinkle around his eyes when he smiles? His laugh? His voice? What if this pain is what's keeping me connected to him? Man, grief is relentless and messy and sometimes, debilitating! On this Easter, I know he's safe. He's better than ok. He's whole and healthy. The thing is, before the cancer, he was whole and healthy here. Why couldn't he stay that way on this earth? I'm so thankful he's not suffering from the cancer but what about me? I'm walking around in a fog. I feel like I died with him.....I just still have a living body. My relationships are suffering. I feel like I'm too sad for people but I don't know how to fix it. Time....or so I'm told.....Time. It won't heal it. I won't get over it. It'll just help me learn to carry it differently. Healing won't happen on command. Until then I just do the best I can and give myself a lot of grace.

Pictures are from Easter's past!

04/11/2025

When you're grieving, your brain is in survival mode. Cognitive function drops. Focus, memory and motivation take a hit. And your nervous system? Stuck in overdrive. You can't sleep, or you sleep too much, you can't eat, you barely drink, you cancel plans or you don't make plans. My therapist said, "your nervous system is jacked up!" Many will ask a grieving person what they need or say things like, "we're here for you" or "call me if you need something". These are well meaning things and they are appreciated but the thing is, we don't know what we need. When in doubt, just show up! Bring food, offer to help around the house, offer to get them out of the house, let them talk about their loved one. Just show up!

Today's Kenny story. We took the four youngest kids, Camden and a neighbor to the park one day. I'm not sure who had more fun; the kids or Kenny? I know they had more fun because of him. How many 50 something yr old men climb, go down slides and act like they are 10? Kenny always made everything more fun!

Day 69 of losing my love

04/05/2025

Today I realized that I can do hard things. It's things that I've done before. I got the oil changed (I've done this many times before) ✔️ I had lunch with a friend (easy peasy except I caught myself laughing when my husband can't and I feel guilty for that) ✔️ I went to a play at the high school that the middle school was doing (I saw lots of people and was terrified that if someone hugged me I would lose it) ✔️ I finally blew the leaves (Kenny taught me how to do this after his diagnosis. He wanted to make sure I knew how to do it all) ✔️ I mowed the front lawn (I had to stop, go and get gas.... Then when I got back, the mower wouldn't start. Here I am with it almost dark and I'm having a meltdown in my front yard sitting on the lawn mower. Then boom, it started) ✔️
Here's the thing. I can do hard things. I was strong and independent when Kenny started dating me. The things that I didn't know how to do, Kenny taught me how to do. Lesson after lesson when he got his diagnosis. He wanted me to be prepared, he wanted me to be taken care of and he did a good job. I am prepared and if I can't do it, I have a village I can call on. But I don't want to do these things without my precious husband. I don't want to do them without the man that beamed with pride when he said, "I'm with Jill". I know I have to, I know I can, I just don't want to. I miss him with every fiber of my being.

Kenny and I got engaged at Foothills Milling Company in October 2011. We were planning a wedding for June 2013 but I was sick of planning. We called a county commissioner and with our friend/photographer we eloped on 3.1.13. Knowing what I know now, knowing the depths of the grief that I feel now, I would still choose him. I would still love him and have him love me. It is my greatest gift!

Day 62 of losing my love

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