After stroke, Kelli Gillis fights back with support from husband, community

WADESBORO — Their 25th Wedding Anniversary wasn’t exactly the one the Gillis’s imagined, but at least they were on the same side of a window to celebrate.

For the last year and then some, Kent Gillis has been visiting his wife Kelli and staying at her bed side. That is until COVID-19 forced him and their family members to wave from outside of the Wadesboro Health and Rehabilitation facility.

But day after day, Kent drives to see his bride, pressing his hand against her window and shouting “I love you!”

Kellibob, as he calls her, suffered a stroke on Nov. 7, 2019.

Kent vividly recalls the worst night of his life.

She plopped down on their couch that night, which was the first sign that something was wrong because his “laaa-dy” would never plop down. She complained of not feeling well and when he looked down, one side of her face was drooping down — a sign of a stroke.

A neighbor came over to their house after hearing the two of them argue, noting it was unusual to hear that since the lovebirds never argue. Together they convinced Kelli to go to the emergency room, where she worked.

The emergency room staff prepared for her arrival. Co-workers, both on duty and off, showed up and waited for Kelli, the first of endless signs of how Kelli is one loved woman.

Kent saw an employee check her pulse as they rushed her onto the gurney. The employee looked up and shook her head to say “no.”

And that is all Kent remembers from that night.

The doctors told Kent that only 5% of people who have Kelli’s type of stroke live longer than three days.

The next 37 days left Kent barely eating two crackers a few days at a time. Every day the doctors would come in and tell Kent that she was not going to live.

“I want to know one thing, is she in pain?” Kent remembers asking the doctor. “He said no and I said we go with it…we ain’t stopping.”

Three separate times he signed papers to allow doctors to shut down her organs, as Kellibob was not responding. And three separate times she found her way through to communicate and let her husband know she was coming back.

“At 12:15 we walked in the room to shut her organs down and when I walked in the doctor looked at me,” Kent said. “‘Mr. Gillis, you and your boys sit down and shut the door.’ What does that tell you? I thought she had passed.”

The doctor looked like he was about to cry, Kent continued. He explained to Kent and their two sons, of all of his years in this line of work, he has never seen this before. When they began to drain fluid from her brain to relieve the pressure, brain activity spiked.

“Back the train up! We ain’t stopping!”

Throughout these brutally long weeks, Kent was told his wife would be paralyzed from the neck down and her personality would be severely blunted. All the characteristics you love about someone, their humor, train of thought, that would all be gone.

But somehow, the professionals were wrong.

Kent started posting to Facebook shortly after her stroke. He wanted to show a timeline of her progression.

“The videos and stuff that I do was really set up a daily thing where she could see where she was out when she came out of it,” Kent said. “Every day say, ‘Ok Nov. 7, doctors are saying pull the plug.’ I just really hoped she would get to where she is now to tell that story.”

Now, Kelli is eating, moving the right-side of her body and talking. She is even funnier now than before the accident, according to Kent.

“Kellibob humor: After me trying to be romantic and ask her if she wants me to sing to her tonight, she responded, ‘Nope, I’m watching Big Brother,’” Kent shared on his Facebook.

“She tells me how to cook,” Kent laughed. “She’ll make me a grocery list, send me to the grocery store…I’ll move a monitor into the kitchen and we can cook together.”

He’ll puree her food and bring it to the front of the Wadesboro Health and Rehabilitation facility, where nurses will bring it to her. He will then pull his truck around the back, open up his chair that rests against the building and together they will have dinner.

A date night through a window is not one they would have imagined, but it is the one people cannot get enough of from his Facebook page. He is constantly updating his followers of her progression — as well as his progression in losing over a 100 pounds since the start of this tragedy — and sharing pictures of date nights and videos of them singing their love song together.

Their love story is growing all the time.

Kent has had over 700 friend requests since starting his social media updates. Someone living in China even reached out to him.

“People I don’t even know across the county…I’ll have people pull up in my yard I don’t even know hand me a $1,000!” Kent said.

People have donated wheelchairs, hospital beds and even an accessible van to drive her around.

A friend who owns a construction company has come to their house and renovated the bathroom and house to be accessible for when Kelli returned home.

And return she did.

Kelli is granted between 60 to 65 nights a year where she can come home. Kent can also come pick her up during the day to spend time with her that will not count against those limited nights.

“Right now she needs the therapy,” Kent said. “She needs what they can give her and it works.”

But for their anniversary, his Kellibob was all his in the comfort of their own home.

“I got her home for the week,” Kent said tearing up. “The whole week! And she comes back for Christmas on the 23rd.”

The two of them got to spend their anniversary together at their house. She received her first real shower in over a year in her brand new accessible bathroom. Kent set up a special spa day where Kelli’s beautician came over and did her hair and makeup.

The special day ended with a parade for her. Forty five cars packed to the gills with friends, families and strangers drove by their house.

“You watch the love of your life— ” Kent chokes up. “Twenty five years ago I towed her over a threshold, twenty five years later I push her over one. Greatest feeling ever.”

After this long road, Kent can see the light at the end of the tunnel. He is very hopeful to have his Kellibob back in their home permanently, and he’s overwhelmed with the amount of support the both of them have received.