By Jean Lang
7/30/09
Jennifer L. (Chistolini) Kelly, 37, was passionate in all that she did and all that she loved.
Jenn was an advocate for those with serious food allergies – a group that included her and two of her three children. She talked with school officials to come up with strategies to keep students safe in the cafeteria and classrooms, and walked each year to raise money for the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network.
“I think she brought a lot of awareness about
allergies and the seriousness of it to make it easier
for the next set of parents coming in,” said Amy
Delaney, a friend and an incoming Collicot School PTO president.
Jenn died July 21 after collapsing the previous week following a morning run.
More than 100 people contributed thoughts to a hospital Web page – first to pray for her recovery, then to express their sadness and share their stories of Jenn and her family: her husband, Eric; sons Liam, 9, and Ronan, 3; and daughter Ava, 8.
“I am forever changed by the loving, caring, vibrant ways you lived your life. I have so many memories of your love shown in the way you cared for your children and the way you had a zest for life,” wrote one Milton mom. “You’ve been an example to us all … as a mother, as a wife, as a woman, as a person who made the world and everything you touched more beautiful by just being you.”
Another entry read: “Don’t cry because it’s over … smile because it happened.”
Jenn was an active parent in the Collicot, Campbell and Centre schools, as well as St. Agatha Church, where she was a faith formation teacher last year for Ava’s First Communion class.
“We only had 16 years, but they were a great 16 years,” said Eric, a youth baseball coach and member of the town’s Warrant Committee. He and his wife met during a film class at Merrimack College, from where they graduated, respectively, in 1993 and 1994. They lived on L Street in South Boston before moving to Otis Street in Milton seven years ago.
Jenn worked as a chemist at DuPont and a marketing director at Marathon Biopharmaceuticals before devoting herself to her family full time.
She loved books, fashion, cooking, gardening, photography, yoga, early morning walks, and dining out with family and friends.
Luisa McDonough, who met Jenn at Fontbonne Academy, said she, Jenn and other classmates dined at 224 Boston and other favorite restaurants for their birthdays, as a way of staying in touch.
“She was so creative,” said Luisa. She said Jenn would always have great Halloween costumes for her children and would stay up late to prepare for family events, finding news ways to cook favorites so that her children could enjoy them.
Luisa and Jenn visited Luisa’s family in Italy during high school. Jenn traveled there again recently with her father and Liam to visit their relatives.
“She’s going to be really missed,” Luisa said.
In addition to her husband and children, Jenn is survived by her mother, Mary Lou O’Connor, of Dorchester; her father, John Chistolini, of Milton; her sister, Alexandra Chistolini, of Milton; her grandmother, Helen O’Connor, of Dorchester, her mother- and father-in-law, Henry Kelly and Carol Kelly, of Merrimac; her sister-in-law Sara Edic and her husband, Jason, of Merrimac; her nieces and nephew, Olivia, Ella and Gavin Edic, all of Merrimac, and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.
A funeral Mass was celebrated at St. Agatha
Church on July 27. Burial was in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Dorchester.
Donations may be made to Project BIND (Boston Inclusion Network for Disabilities) at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dorchester, 1135 Dorchester Ave., Dorchester, MA 02125. The money will be used to create The Jennifer Kelly Garden.