Photo above, Jill, Camryn, Jim, and Erin Kelly

June 2016 – He faced challenge, loss, and tragedy – perhaps a bit reminiscent of Job in the Old Testament. However, his faith came into play much later than Job’s.

Pro football Hall of Fame Quarterback Jim Kelly had it all – the fame, the fortune, the flair, the fans and before long, a family of his own. He played for the Buffalo Bills from 1986 to 1996, led the team to four consecutive Super Bowls, and married a beautiful blonde at the peak of his football career.

Her name was Jill Waggoner, and they met at a post-game party at Jim’s house. The two were introduced but went their separate ways at the end of the night … although not
for long.

“I found out where she worked … I sent her flowers and said, ‘Just have lunch or dinner with me. That’s all I’m asking,’” Jim said. “Three children later and 20 years of marriage, here we are.

“So I completed that pass and got a touchdown,” Jim said with a big smile on his face.

But it was not without fumbles along the way.

The team
Both Jim and Jill were raised Catholic, but God meant nothing to them at the time. After almost two years of dating, Jim asked Jill to move in with him. She agreed, and four months later she was pregnant.

“I was scared, afraid to tell him,” Jill recalled.

Abortion was discussed but never became an option for the couple. After acknowledging “the right thing” to do, the couple chose life for their daughter Erin. Jim and Jill married in 1996 – a year after their daughter’s birth.

In 1997, they welcomed their son Hunter into the world on Jim’s birthday, February 14, just two weeks after Jim retired from football. Then in 1999, Jill gave birth to their second daughter, Camryn.

When Hunter was four months old, he was diagnosed with Krabbe leukodystrophy. Mayo Clinic defines it as “an inherited disorder that destroys the protective coating (myelin) of nerve cells in the brain and throughout the nervous system.” A person with Krabbe has a life expectancy of less than two years.

Because of the Lord’s will and around-the-clock care that Jill and her mother gave to Hunter, he lived to be eight-and-a-half years old.

Pass interference
The news of Hunter’s fatal diagnosis was devastating. Watching her son suffer prompted Jill to begin a spiritual journey in search of a God she knew only by name.

“There was no cure,” she told Religion and Ethics Newsweekly. “There was no treatment, there was nothing that celebrity or money could buy for Hunter, so I was thinking Who is this God that I think I know is there, but I don’t understand Him? I’ve heard about Him my whole life, but who is He really? So it was Hunter’s suffering that caused me to seek after God.”

Jill became a believer after Hunter’s diagnosis and gained a completely different perspective of the situation.

“When Christ intervenes, you stop seeing a child in front of you as dying; you see life, and that’s exactly what we saw,” Jill said. “Hunter was knit together in my womb for a purpose, and he taught me that the gift of life – of every breath – is precious.”

For Jim, it was different. He was mad and wanted nothing to do with his wife’s newfound faith.

“The more Jill would seek the Lord, the more I ran from the Lord,” Jim said.

Hunter’s diagnosis began to take a toll on Jim as he thought about the hardships he had endured thus far – a serious football injury, four Super Bowl losses, and shattered dreams for his son. The ups and downs that followed from parenting a terminally ill child only fueled his anger and pushed him to ask, “Why me?”

“I was mad at everybody that came up to me and said, ‘You’re the chosen father of this little boy because you can make a difference.’ I didn’t want to hear that. I wanted to punch every person that told me that,” Jim admitted.

Jim wrestled with his anger for years, and he hit rock bottom in 2005 when Hunter died after being rushed to the hospital early one summer morning. The emergency resulted in miscommunication between Jim and Jill. Thus, Jim, who stayed behind until a neighbor could arrive to stay with their daughters, ended up driving to the wrong hospital, 40 minutes away from the hospital where Hunter had been taken. He arrived at the right hospital in time to be met by a couple of doctors who told him that Hunter was gone.

After Hunter’s death, Jim confessed to his family that he had been unfaithful to Jill and to their marriage. He sought pastoral counseling and realized he was going to lose everything if he continued living on the path he had chosen.

“I humbled myself, I manned up, I knew my faults, and I said it’s time for me to be a father and be a husband,” Jim explained. He became a Christian in 2007. His marriage was restored, and Jim is now in love with his wife all over again.

Touchdown
“We were living a worldly life, and we had based all of our hope on the things of this world … and there was no hope in them at all,” Jill said of their life prior to Hunter. “God, in an instant, in a diagnosis, took all of that away.”

She added, “God used our one and only son, first and foremost, to bring us to His one and only Son – Jesus. … That changes everything!”

It even changed their perspective of suffering when Jim was diagnosed with cancer of the jaw in 2013. After undergoing treatment, he was declared cancer free. But in 2014, more cancer was found in his nasal cavity. He was given more aggressive treatment, and it was successful.

Through it all, the whole family asked why. Although they trusted God, they questioned Him; but this time they were able to echo with confidence the words of Job: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:21).  

Hunter's Hope – Photo, Jim Kelly with his son, Hunter
Jim and Jill Kelly started Hunter’s Hope Foundation when their terminally ill son was only eight months old because they felt compelled to find answers and help others in similar difficult situations.

Hunter’s Hope defines the foundation as “a nonprofit organization committed to giving hope through education and awareness, research, and family care for Krabbe, Leukodystrophies, and Newborn Screening.”

The Kellys shared their story, and people began to send donations to help children like Hunter. In 2004, the Foundation helped found Hunter James Kelly Research Institute at University of Buffalo.

“God has really done a work in my heart to see that we can be the hands and heart of God through what we do at the foundation, and that’s to help the families,” Jill said.

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Kelly family resources
Jill Kelly is a sought-after author and speaker, and Jim Kelly continues to host football camps for kids, serve disadvantaged children in western New York, and encourage men to fulfill their God-given roles of husband and father. Their daughters, Erin and Camryn, are also writers.

Websites
▶ jillk.org
▶ jimkelly.com
▶ hotchocolatewithgod.com
▶ erinkelly.com

Books
▶ Etched Upon My Heart
▶ Without a Word
▶ Prayers for Those Who Grieve
▶ Kelly Tough