Kandi Teegardin Kelley

Kandi Kay Teegardin Kelley, 62, of Tampa, Florida, died December 29, 2019, of pancreatic cancer at Seasons Hospice, St. Joseph’s Hospital, Tampa. Kandi was predeceased by father, James Teegardin, mother, Nancy Wallace, sister, Charlene Tomasko, and niece, Allie Tomasko. She is survived by her husband, Kit Kelley, brother, Jim Teegardin, sisters, Janice Ward, Cindee Ladge, Debbie Wilson (Gordon), brother-in-law Jamie Tomasko (Angie), nephews, Josh Brady, Eric Tomasko (Amy), nieces Lisa Ward, Lori Ward Munger (Jason), Erin Teegardin, Brooke Teegardin, great nephews, Hunter Brown, Mason Brady, Miles Brady, great nieces, Morgan Brady, Ashley Ward, Brittany Ward Beavers (Ray), Reba Brown, Kenlee Tomasko, and several cousins.

Kandi loved her family deeply and tried to spend as much time with them as possible at family functions on holidays and on various vacation trips. She loved shopping and dining with her sisters. Kandi was a great cook who loved preparing great feasts for large gatherings of family and friends.

Kandi was an avid reader, reading very quickly and devouring thousands of books. She became a used bookseller on Amazon. She and her husband, Kit, made many trips throughout the tri-state area of western North Carolina, north Georgia and eastern Tennessee searching for books to buy and resell. Many finds were quickly added to their personal libraries. Her personal library of books (keepers) and her collection of books to sell (sellers) totaled well over 10,000.

Kandi loved movies, particularly romantic comedies. She also loved PBS shows like “Downton Abbey”, which she watched many times, and she attended the recent film in period costume with her sister, Cindee. They were quite a hit with fellow moviegoers and posed for photos there.

Kandi was a lover of all things British, including writers, films and TV shows, history and the royal family. She loved BBC America and was a British history buff who enjoyed books, movies and shows about World War II.

Kandi was a master gardener who could can what she grew, stocking the pantry for months to come. She was a do-it-yourselfer who taught herself to do plumbing repairs, screen a porch, hang drywall and much more. She once demolished the backdoor landing and built a new one there.

Kandi was an animal lover who loved all living creatures. She rescued many cats and dogs, fostering them, adopting them out and many times keeping them as pets. She especially loved cats and was the cat mom to many kitties, whom she loved dearly. She learned how to domesticate feral cats so that they could be adopted.

She once spotted something moving in a box along a lonely country road and stopped to find several puppies inside. She brought them home and built a pen with her sister, Cindee, to hold the puppies until she could find homes for all of them, which she did. She even refused to kill bugs or spiders. Instead she had several jars around the house so she could quickly catch the insects and release them outside. She was very upset whenever one of the cats caught or killed some other animal and many times she intervened to free the captured animal before they were killed.

Kandi was mom to some “barnyard” animals including ten egg-laying hens and three pygmy goats. She bottle-fed a baby goat when the mother rejected him at birth and later daily tied the mother to the pen fence so that he could nurse. She also liked to leave dry cat food out for the possums and raccoons because she could not stand the thought of them being hungry.

Kandi loved to laugh and was a funny, witty person. She had a great sense of humor so she got even the driest, most obscure joke. Some of her favorite books were those with humorous stories or characters.

Kandi was a deeply caring person who always took care of others. After thirty years of working in the insurance industry, she went back to school and then to work as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), caring for many elderly and disabled people in western North Carolina. She became friends with several of her clients and their families.

Kandi loved her pet kitties very much and greatly enjoyed watching them play in the yard and in the house, where there were numerous cat toys, some from the store but many were things like ping pong balls, puff balls, shoe strings, old socks, paper wads, etc. Throughout her life she had many pets but some of her most loved were Rex, her dog, and her cats Puff, Buster, Rascal, Nina, Baby, Boy, Blackie, Leo, Kitten, Jerry, Ozzie, Lucy and Willie, nearly all of whom were rescued stray cats. They all loved Kandi very much and she nearly always had a cat or two sleeping in the bed with her at night.

It is not possible to write here all the wonderful things about Kandi and her life. There is just too much good, too many wonderful stories to relate about her, too many tales of all she did for others, and of how much she meant to so many. Just know that Kandi was a kindhearted, loving, generous, sweet person who loved many and was loved by many.

We are all blessed to have known her and have her in our lives and we will miss her greatly until that day when we meet her again. Kandi is gone for now but never to be forgotten. We will all rejoice that day when we are blessed to be with her again. We love you, Kandi.