Friday night was a particularly emotional one for KoDee Montgomery's family, and for all of Timpanogos High School for that matter. It was the Timberwolves' final home game of the football season, and the seniors were honored with their parents after their game.
Not wanting to miss any part of his son's life if he can possibly be there, Kelly Montgomery had gone to the school earlier in the day to watch KoDee and his hip-hop club dance at an assembly. It took a lot out of him, but Kelly managed to revive himself enough to attend the football game in a wheelchair on the sideline that frigid night.The climax of the heart-warming evening came when Kelly lifted himself out of the chair, walked over to his son and, in front of teary-eyed fans, players and friends, gave KoDee one of the last hugs they'll ever share.
KoDee Montgomery, a senior football player at Timpanogos High, is at the time in his life when girls, homework and an occasional bout with acne should be about the only things causing him grief.
He would be in heaven if life were only that unfair.
Instead, Montgomery, 17, is living a nightmare. He knows for certain that his dad will die soon. Way too soon.
Kelly Dee Montgomery could die today. Maybe tomorrow. But probably before his oldest boy's next football game on Friday.
"It's been hard," said KoDee, his sad voice trailing off and his head bowing while searching for words to express his feelings about his dad.
Not even a thesaurus has the right words to describe the hell and heartbreak the Montgomery family has gone through the past six months while Kelly, 41, has battled cancer.
"I think it's been the hardest on KoDee," said Juli Montgomery, Kelly's wife and KoDee's mom. "But he's been really strong throughout."
But the pain, suffering and dried-out tear ducts have welded this Orem family closer together. Particularly KoDee and Kelly. They are the only men in the house because of the death of the family's other boy, then-3-month-old Nic, almost 16 years ago.
"I've had to live with all of these girls," said KoDee, breaking a smile while talking about his mom and sisters Cassie, 14, Carli, 13, and Kami, 8.
"My dad's been the only guy in my life."
And Kelly, who had his cancer-filled stomach and spleen removed months ago, has spent as much of his remaining time possible with KoDee. When the doctors put a timeline on his mortality, in fact, Kelly had one wish. Simply, he wanted to live long enough to watch KoDee finish his senior season of football. As a former high school football player himself, his big heart was never prouder than when he watched KoDee play.
That's why attending Friday's game was so important to him. If he's still alive come next Friday's game, Kelly probably won't have the strength to watch KoDee and the boys he helped coach as kids play.
The Timpanogos football team visited him Saturday morning. Over 30 boys crammed in his bedroom to tell him how much they loved him and to present him with a beautiful blanket with a wolf on it. Friday's game had been special to all of them. The players were touched that he had watched them play, probably for the last time.
"I was having a real hard time (Friday), but I wanted to be at that game so bad," Kelly said. "I tried to save all my energy. I just wanted to be there."
Another touching father-son moment happened during Timpanogos' game against Orem a couple of weeks ago. Kelly was really hurting at halftime, so much so that he uncharacteristically told his wife that he should probably leave. When they got into the car, however, Kelly decided he wanted to try to stay. So they warmed up for a few minutes and he took some more morphine for pain. As soon as the whistle blew, they trekked across the parking lot and back into the stadium.
"I heard the crowd," Kelly said, "and I had to go back."
He was blessed for doing so. In the fourth quarter, KoDee, a running back, busted loose from the pack to score a touchdown. He then dropped the ball, looked up at his dad and saluted him. Kelly proudly returned the salute and proclaimed, "That's my boy!"
Kelly has also been thrilled to see his son recently go from being a boy "who had been on both sides" to a man who is helping take care of family members and the air-conditioning business Kelly and Juli started.
"He's been really good at protecting me and giving me what I need. And he doesn't give me any guff," said Kelly with a grin. "He's trying really hard in school. He's just an all-around good kid. You couldn't ask for a better son. He makes me proud."
A boy couldn't be prouder of his father, either. But it's been torturous for KoDee to watch his hero in such agony.
Kelly is now surviving only on water that he drinks in small sips and heavy doses of pain medication. Doctors decided it was time to stop feeding him intravenously a week ago, and the lack of food has left his rapidly deteriorating muscles as his only nourishment. His withering 115-pound body has been painfully reduced to skin, bones, a big heart and an inspiring soul.
"Through this whole cancer thing he's been through so much pain," KoDee said, "but I haven't heard him say one thing about being in pain. Not one thing, even though he has experienced 10 times more pain than anyone."
Juli has been awed by how the strong-spirited Kelly has been the one who's comforted those looking to comfort him.
"I think there's a lot to learn about pain and suffering," Kelly said. "We can mope around or we can deal with it. I feel good about everything."
It doesn't make any sense why this happened to Kelly. Though in his 40s, his athletic body was in better shape than most men half his age. Kelly ran, lifted weights, played almost every sport imaginable and loved to participate in outdoor recreational activities. The body fat on his lean-but-sculpted 6-foot-tall frame was less than 10 percent.
"I just lived for sports," Kelly said. "You name it, and if it has to do with sports I love it."
Kelly, who is a pharmacist by trade and a Mr. Do-It-All by hobby, first felt sharp pains in his stomach in January. He ignored the pain at first, dismissing it as an ulcer or something else not serious enough to stop him from living out his full life.
"He ignored it at first," Juli said, then adding with a chuckle, "He was Mr. Maalox man."
But the pain soon became even too excruciating for stubborn-willed Kelly.
So, on March 22, he went to the doctors for a biopsy. Doctors discovered that a huge tumor had invaded his athletic body. The cancer had an unfair head start and had engulfed his stomach. It was quickly devouring him from the inside-out, so one week later, on March 29, Kelly had an emergency operation. He had 100 percent of his stomach and his spleen removed.
But he and his family, though obviously devastated, still had hope. Doctors predicted he had a 50-60 percent chance of staying alive for another five years or so.
"Even after they cut his stomach out, I thought, 'I can deal with that,' " said Juli."And I knew he could, the way Kelly is. If it's broke, he'll fix it."
Kelly tried to keep living as normal a life as he could. Ever the adventurer, he went on family vacations to Disneyland in April and Germany in early summer.
But his condition worsened after the trip to Europe. He couldn't hold any food down, and hasn't actually eaten food by mouth since July. His body temperature would skyrocket from 100 to 106 almost instantly at times, and the pain intensified to the point that he would shake severely and uncontrollably in his bed.
"You wouldn't think a body could shake that much," Juli said, adding her thanks to Kit Jackson, a nurse from Hospice for Utah who has been on call for the Montgomerys for months.
In August, Kelly went back to the hospital for another surgery. Doctors hoped that they could remove scar tissue, so he would be able to eat and keep the food down.
With this surgery, however, came the another bombshell. The cancer had sprung to new life at the expense of Kelly's remaining internal organs. His time was running out.
"When the doctor came around the corner, I could see it in his eyes. You knew it was over," Juli said. "It was just a matter of when. He said Kelly only had a couple of weeks to a few months to live, if we were lucky. That was the devastating part. It was incredibly painful.
"If you've ever seen a mother and her four kids just sob, that's what it was like."
Since then, the family has been remarkably strong while consoling themselves and dealing with the inevitable. They are a believing LDS family -- Kelly served a mission to Norway in the '70s -- so they are comforted by their belief that the family will be reunited.
That thought brings great joy to Kelly, a devoted family man who honors his wife and taught his children solid values.
"He always wanted to be with us," KoDee said. "He always said the family was most important."
"More than anything I want them to know that they are the most important thing in my life. Not work, not play but my family," Kelly added. "I would do anything for them."
He wanted to build each of his kids their own house, like the one his family lives in now. The Montgomerys also had several vacations they were looking forward to.
"We had so many plans," Juli said.
Fortunately, they'll always be able to revisit some great memories.