Teresa Lanelle Cahill

Teresa “Terri” Jackson Cahill was welcomed into the arms of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in heaven on August 21, 2021. She was met in heaven by her father, Owen L. “Bill” Jackson and her mother Barbara Lewis Jones. She is succeeded in life by her loving husband, best friend and soul mate, Patrick D. Cahill. Immediate surviving family include her sister Jan, her daughter Charity, sons David and Brady, stepson Connor, grand daughter Jennah and grandsons Bryant and Jayce.

Terri was a self-made woman with tremendous joie de vivre who made the world a better place for everyone who knew her as a friend and co-worker, and everyone she cared for both personally and professionally as a nationally certified operating room nurse (CNOR).

Terri put herself through school while working multiple jobs as a single mother. She graduated high school from Mary G. Montgomery in 1975. She earned her Associates Degree in Nursing from Mobile College in 1988, her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from University of South Alabama in 2000 and became the highest educated member of her family when she earned her Master of Science in Nursing (Executive Nursing Administration) from University of South Alabama in 2009. She also earned membership in Sigma Theta Tau (International Honor Society of Nursing) in 2009.

Terri embraced her work with a passion and a selfless service that comes only with a true nurse’s heart. She was always an advocate for her patients and had a reputation for dressing down doctors at various facilities in Mobile who did not meet her strict operating room standards for ensuring the best outcome for every patient. She became nationally certified as an operating room nurse (CNOR) in 1991 and maintained that certification until she was welcomed into heaven, proudly displaying CNOR on her Nurses Save Lives license plate. She was actively involved in the South Alabama Chapter of the Association of peri-Operative Registered Nurses (AORN) as Secretary, Vice President, President elect and President from 2004-2010 and enjoyed annually traveling to cities around the country for the National AORN Congress, making new and lasting friends everywhere she went. After earning her Master degree Terri enthusiastically embraced moving to new and different places, serving as an Operating Room Nurse Manager at hospitals in Plano, TX, Indio, CA and Woodbridge, VA before her own health issues took their toll on her in 2018.

Terri’s servant’s heart extended to her church family. She was a “baby roll” member of College Park Baptist Church and was an active member of the choir as well as the church organist until her career took her to distant cities. In 2016 she moved her letter to Grace Baptist Church in La Quinta, CA where she became a beloved member of a small church choir and played the organ once again. On moving back to Saraland, AL she joined Celeste Road Baptist Church and once again became actively involved in the church choir, donating a keyboard and her skills to continue her service as an organist until she was welcomed into heaven’s choir of angels.

Terri met her husband and soul mate Patrick on October 23, 1996. They were married at College Park Baptist Church on October 24, 1998 and lived a full life in the short 25 years they had together. They fought through great adversity, nursed each other through sickness and injury and supported each other in work and life. Terri and Patrick traveled the world together and Terri embraced new experiences and adventures without hesitation.

Terri and Patrick shared a love of college football, several times rooting against each other when Alabama played Michigan and Navy played South Alabama. They planned their Christmas holidays around trips to bowl games with extended stays to see and explore, preferring experiences and memories over worldly things and gifts that don’t last. Their first trip to Hawaii was premised on an Alabama vs. Hawaii football game. New Year’s Eve fireworks on a dinner cruise under the Golden Gate Bridge at midnight, traveling to the California wine country and seeing the redwood forests, horseback riding in exotic places, visits to theme parks, riding roller coasters, tailgating with friends in distant cities and feeling the thrill of low-level flyovers at Army Navy games were part of their fabric of life together.

She joined Patrick in becoming a Nitrox PADI certified recreational diver and dove throughout the world, including honeymooning on Grand Cayman and Key Largo, and four trips to multiple Hawaiian Islands where she embraced the Aloha spirit. She traveled to the warm South Pacific waters of Samoa and the laid-back shallow reefs of the Florida Keys. The beach, any beach, was her favorite place and she dove, swam, and floated throughout the sugar sands of the Gulf Coast.

Terri learned to ski at the age of 40 in Taos, New Mexico and conquered the blue runs throughout the country, skiing in British Columbia, Lake Tahoe, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and dozens of other places, often treating her children and grandchildren to the experience.

Terri and Patrick traveled the United States and the world for both work and pleasure. Her passport recorded trips to Japan and New Zealand, Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, and Austria. Terri blessed people everywhere with her southern belle charm. When she spoke people would beg her to talk more just to hear the sweet sound of her southern Alabama accent. She was and will forever be the Queen.

Aloha Terri. You will be forever loved and missed every day until we are together again.

Memorial Service will be held at Radney Funeral Home, Saraland, AL on Saturday August 28, 2021, with visitation at 3:30 and service at 4:00. Attire is island casual, and the spirit is Aloha.