One Of A kind

KENNETH

Kenneth William Reid was born in New Zealand, Dec 11th, 1977. We spent three more years in NZ before moving back to Scotland for a year and then to Natick, Massachusetts in Sept.1980. Kenneth was involved with our local church youth group and played bass guitar. He loved snowboarding and went off many times with his friend Peter. He also liked hiking and camping with his other friends Mark and Drew. This being said I was always waiting for a call from “Mountain Rescue.” He attended Northeastern University for Civil Engineering and worked in Boston, San Francisco, and New Zealand as a Civil and latterly as a Structural engineer completing his Professional Engineering in CA in April 2008.

Some of our earliest memories of Kenneth is LAUGHTER !! He had the ability to make us laugh so many times. His misdemeanors as a child, the stories he wrote in English class and of course his antics !! He was quite brilliant and as my sister said, “There is a fine line between brilliance and insanity.” To those who knew him or went to the celebration of his life you will know the story of Kenneth shaving his hair to have a comb over. During his treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1997 (during his first year at college} his hair fell out when he had radiation to his neck. It was in a crescent from his neck up the back of his head. He made eyes nose and mouth — stuck them on to the back of his head and put his clothes on backwards !! Then the story of just before Andrew’s graduation from high school. Kenneth decided to dye not only his hair black but his moustache and eyebrows. He had to take a day off work and he washed his skin all day to get the dye off. He went to the graduation looking like a chimney sweeps brush! He loved The Simpsons and laughed so LOUDLY he would even fall on the floor laughing. If any of you went to a funny movie with him you know what I mean. Even in those five months before he died he still made us laugh.

Kenneth loved life and many things about it, but two stand out. Sheila and his 1972 Ford LTD. He fell in love with the car first as he saw it in someone’s drive and made an offer for it. Then it was a long process of restoration which gave him such pleasure. When he moved to CA in 2006 he and some friends towed the LTD behind the moving van !! He did actually drive it a few times on the way over — one of the times was at the Grand Canyon. Then there was Sheila. He met her in CA. She came from Louisiana and was actually visiting someone en route to NZ. Since Kenneth was born in NZ they had a lot to speak about. After hundreds of dollars of phone calls Kenneth went for a “holiday” to NZ to see her. They spent a week touring NZ and Kenneth speaks about Feb 14th, 2007 as being one of the happiest days of his life. They spent the day at Cathedral Cove “musseling.” Sheila came back to CA and ultimately to Natick with Kenneth when he was diagnosed with Mesothelioma. In June 2008 he started chemo with his Oncologist at Dana Farber. On October 4th, 2008 he was admitted to the hospital with a heart rate of 260! This was really a side affect and ultimately he had a tracheostomy in November as his lung capacity was so poor. Kenneth was transferred to our local hospital in Natick November 16th on a ventilator with the hope of getting home after some rehabilitation. This was not to be as he contracted two separate bouts of pneumonia at the end of January as we were planning for his return home. It weakened him further and he was in the ICU until he died March 1st, 2009. In those 5 months we visited him every day and we prayed for a miracle. He never lost his faith, his love for his friends and family, the joy he had when he saw Sheila or his sense of humor. He was engaged in October 2008 at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston and married December 18th in Leonard Morse Hospital. Sheila was always by his side and was the light of his life. With Sheila he felt true Joy — to love and be loved — what a gift. Sheila remained in Natick as a dorm parent at WHS with us until 2013. The LTD is being taken care of by Kenneth’s brothers. True love.

Update: Sheila went back to school and was accepted into an accelerated nursing degree at Northeastern University in Boston (Kenneth’s alma mater.) She received her RN in 2013 and hopes to ultimately be involved in cancer research after a few years of nursing..

In September 2013 Sheila accepted a nursing position at Tulane University Hospital New Orleans in a medical surgical ward. Sheila continued nursing at Tulane University Hospital and took a course in Oncology which led her to accept a position in the Bone Marrow Transplant ward. I am sure that many patients were blessed with her nursing skills and her warm and caring heart. In December 2019 – after 6 years nursing Sheila applied for a position on the Infectious Disease Control Team. This was just before COVID and I am sure they have valued her joining them during these past two years.  Although we were very sad to see her leave in 2013 she will always be part of the family. We are happy that she is back in Louisiana, the state of her birth, and only an hour away from her mom and dad. Kenneth told us that he wanted Sheila to be part of the family and she always will be.

2011 Sheila came to Scotland with us for a vacation. 2012 she was bridesmaid to Melissa at our son Andrew’s wedding. 2017 Sheila was Godmother to Andrew and Melissa’s second child Ainsley.

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