As soon as Hunter Keelen hears his name announced as the 2021 Homecoming Prince of the junior class, he looks up and points to the sky. He immediately thought of his mom, who passed away in Oct. 2019 from a brain aneurysm. Photo by Maya Ortiz.
Keelen carries on mom’s legacy Dr. Christi Keelen was in her first year teaching at Kingwood Park when she died suddenly in the fall of 2019. Her son was a freshman. By Maya Ortiz Editor-in-chief
H Hunter Keelen with his mom Dr. Christi Keelen on the first day of school in 2019. She was starting her first year of teaching at Kingwood Park and her son was starting his freshman year on the same campus. Photo submitted by Mark Keelen.
unter Keelen looked up and pointed to the sky as soon as his name was announced for homecoming prince. Hunter was certain his late mom was watching, and he wanted her to know he was thinking of her. “I wanted to show her that I’m still succeeding, still doing stuff even though she’s not here,” he said. “I persevered through that, through my loss, and just kept going.” Hunter’s mom, Dr. Christi Keelen, was an English teacher on campus when he was a freshman. She died suddenly in October 2019 after suffering a brain aneurysm. The moment Hunter got in the ambulance with his mom that day, he sensed that it would not end well. He sat in the hospital hoping for the best, surrounded by his dad and maternal grandmother.
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“I felt helpless, but I also felt loved at the same time,” Hunter said. Dr. Keelen died on a Friday night. Hunter spent that weekend with family. He returned to school on Monday, however. Hunter needed a little noise, and he didn’t want to miss a biology test. Three years later he still remembers acing that science test. For a while after Hunter’s mom died, his dad Mark Keelen worried Hunter might suffer from depression, especially because he saw it so much in his line of work as a firefighter. “He had to become an adult relatively quick,” Mark said. “He had his sad moments, but he never got deep and dark in regards to [his mom’s death].” Hunter credits his dad and maternal grandmother Annette Johnson, who lived nine hours away, for keeping him going. She dropped everything to be with Hunter in the months following the death. And as Hunter remained active in school and in sports, Mark was always there volunteering or cheering. The longtime firefighter cannot remember missing any soccer game Hunter has played since kindergarten. If Mark was scheduled to work, he took vacation or asked someone to cover his shift