09/07/2026
🎗️ KAYLEE’S STORY 🎗️
March 4, 2002 – September 11, 2023
Before there was Kaylee’s Kid’z, there was simply Kaylee.
Kaylee was born on March 4, 2002, at Tampa General Hospital at approximately 5:25 in the afternoon. She weighed 6 pounds, 11 ounces.
And from the moment she entered this world, she became a bright little light in her dad’s life.
There is one memory from the day Kaylee was born that Dad has carried with him ever since.
Later that day, Dad left the hospital to run home and pick up some clothes and other things Kaylee’s mom needed. He got into the vehicle, turned on the radio, and the first song he heard after the birth of his daughter was “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses.
From that day forward, it was never just another song.
It became Kaylee’s song.
As she grew older, Kaylee knew exactly what it meant.
Whenever the song came on, Dad would look at Kaylee.
Kaylee would look back at Dad.
Nothing needed to be said.
She understood.
Years later, those same words would find a permanent home across the front of something else that became an important part of Kaylee’s story—her beloved 1994 Ford Ranger.
For 21 years, when that song played, a father and his daughter could look at each other and know exactly what it meant.
❤️ DADDY’S LITTLE GIRL
From the very beginning, Kaylee was Daddy’s little girl.
And she wasn't afraid to let anybody know it.
With blonde hair, blue eyes and bouncing curls, Kaylee was an active, rambunctious little girl who always seemed to be on the move.
She was goofy. Quirky. Outgoing. Matter-of-fact. And completely herself.
Even from a young age, Kaylee had a way with people.
She could find something about you and make you laugh about it. And if she thought you needed to hear the truth, she wasn't particularly concerned about sugarcoating it.
Kaylee would tell you about yourself in a heartbeat.
That was just Kaylee.
And if Dad was going somewhere, Kaylee wanted to go.
It really didn't matter where.
If Daddy was going, she wanted to be beside him.
🏡 SURROUNDED BY FAMILY
Kaylee’s parents divorced when she was three years old, and from that point forward she lived with Dad for the remainder of her life.
Although Mom and Dad no longer lived under the same roof, Kaylee grew up surrounded by family.
Dad's house and her great-grandfather's house were right next door to each other.
Dad worked long hours, sometimes not getting home until 9:30 or 10 o'clock at night. But there were grandparents and great-grandparents right next door.
And one of the most important people in Kaylee's life was Grandma D.
Grandma D wasn't simply Grandma.
With there no longer being a mom in the house every day, Grandma D stepped into a much bigger role.
She cared for Kaylee. She listened to her. She guided her. She taught her.
And, of course, there were the tea parties.
Those ordinary moments built an extraordinary relationship.
Kaylee relied on Grandma D.
And Grandma D was there.
Then there was Papa.
Papa absolutely doted on Kaylee.
When Kaylee was little, the two developed an evening ritual of watching Barney and The Big Comfy Couch together.
Although, in typical Kaylee fashion, The Big Comfy Couch became:
“The Big J***y Couch.”
Dad never imagined he'd see his grandfather sitting through children's television every night.
But for Kaylee, Papa did.
Those were good times.
🤠 A LITTLE COUNTRY GIRL
Kaylee was absolutely a little country girl.
Sometimes you'd find her bouncing on the trampoline wearing cowboy boots, a cowboy hat, a shirt...
and nothing but a diaper underneath.
Another day she might be lying in a wagon near a hay bale, gathering eggs from the chicken pen or spending time around the horses.
She loved swimming.
She loved animals.
She loved being outside.
And she loved to fish.
Dad still remembers little Kaylee with a ponytail, sweater, oversized sunglasses and a fishing pole, proudly holding one of the biggest bluegill he'd ever seen.
That enormous smile...
That was Kaylee.
Then there was Heidi, Kaylee's childhood dog.
Kaylee had an old green pedal-powered John Deere tractor and somehow figured out she didn't need to do all that pedaling herself.
She had Heidi.
So Kaylee would climb onto the tractor, get Heidi out front, and have the dog pull her up and down the paved driveway.
It was just Kaylee being Kaylee.
And next door was Bryce.
They didn't simply grow up next door to one another.
They grew up together, more like brother and sister than neighbors.
💛 SISSY
As Kaylee approached her teenage years, Dad met Amber, who would eventually become his wife.
Then came Maverick.
And the following year came Paisley.
Suddenly, Daddy's little girl had another title.
Big Sister.
Except Maverick and Paisley didn't call her Kaylee.
She was Sissy.
Always Sissy.
If either one called her Kaylee, she'd immediately correct them:
“No, no, no, no, no. I am not Kaylee. I am Sissy. You call me Sissy.”
Maverick was especially attached to her from the very beginning.
On the day he was born, Kaylee held her brand-new baby brother. Maverick wrapped his tiny hands around both of Sissy's fingers and fell asleep.
His first nap was right there on Kaylee.
Kaylee loved both those kids to no end.
Later, Dad and Amber married.
Kaylee stood in their wedding as one of the bridesmaids.
For a girl who never thought Dad would marry again, it was a big day.
Over time, Amber became more than Dad's wife.
Kaylee began calling her Mom.
They didn't always see eye to eye—what mother and teenage daughter do?—but underneath it was respect, their own special bond and love.
🐾 KOJAK
Around 16, Kaylee found a brindle puppy someone had in a Walmart parking lot.
She brought him home.
Without permission, of course.
Dad gave her two options:
Take the dog back and don't be grounded...
or keep the dog and spend the entire summer grounded.
Kaylee chose the grounding.
Kojak was staying.
And looking back, it's hard to imagine Kaylee's life without him.
She took Kojak fishing, to truck meets and riding in her Ranger.
Later, during cancer, the family realized just how important Kojak had become emotionally.
He didn't care about scans or chemotherapy.
To Kojak, Kaylee wasn't a cancer patient.
She was his person.
Even today, when Kaylee's Ranger fires up, Kojak hears it and wants to get in.
Somewhere inside him, that sound still means:
Kaylee's going somewhere.
Today, Kojak is with Paisley.
Sissy's little sister has Sissy's dog.
🔧 “THE WORLD OWES YOU NOTHING.”
Dad always tried to teach Kaylee independence.
One lesson stayed consistent:
“The world owes you nothing. If you want something, you're going to have to go out there and get it.”
Kaylee learned to cook, do laundry, change tires, change oil and work on her own vehicles.
Grandma D reinforced that independence too.
Dad wanted his daughter to know she didn't have to depend on somebody else to do something she was perfectly capable of learning herself.
Kaylee embraced that.
Especially with her beloved 1994 Ford Ranger.
She worked on it.
Changed her own oil.
Worked on the upholstery.
Made videos of herself working on it.
That Ranger was Kaylee.
📦 THEN CAME UPS
Kaylee wasn't afraid to work.
She worked at Winn-Dixie and Applebee's.
Then one Christmas she became old enough to work seasonally at UPS as a helper—a “jumper”—delivering packages with a driver.
Bryce was jumping that Christmas too.
Dad had Bryce working with him.
Kaylee was working with Dad's friend, Steve.
It should have been just another Christmas season.
But one day Steve called Dad.
Kaylee needed to get off the car.
Her knee hurt.
Dad called Grandma D, who picked her up and took her to urgent care in Zephyrhills.
Later, Grandma D called Dad.
“When you get home, we have to have a serious talk about your daughter.”
🎗️ THE C WORD
Grandma D told Dad the doctors were concerned that what they were seeing in Kaylee's leg could be cancer.
The C word.
No parent wants to hear that word connected to their child.
An orthopedic appointment in Brandon led to Moffitt Cancer Center.
Then came the biopsy.
At 17 years old, Kaylee was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in her right leg, just above the knee.
Everything changed.
🏥 JOHNS HOPKINS ALL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
Because of her age, Kaylee could receive treatment in an adult setting at Moffitt, or she could receive treatment at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.
Kaylee chose Johns Hopkins.
That decision would eventually become incredibly significant.
She went through round after round of chemotherapy.
Two rounds hit her so hard they nearly took her life.
She underwent a total knee replacement.
Later, doctors performed exploratory surgery on her lungs and did not find anything of concern.
Kaylee made it through.
Eventually came the word everyone desperately wanted:
REMISSION.
During treatment, Kaylee also met Clint, another young person fighting osteosarcoma.
Cancer introduced them, but fishing helped make them friends.
Clint captained fishing boats in the Gulf, and Kaylee loved fishing.
They talked through Instagram and Snapchat, helped each other through difficult days, and made plans to go fishing together once they were both healthy enough.
Unfortunately, that fishing trip never happened.
Their families remain connected today.
Dad still talks with Clint's dad, Joe.
Sometimes they wonder what their kids might be doing now.
Maybe somewhere, that fishing trip finally happened.
💔 LOSING GRANDMA D
During Kaylee's first battle, Grandma D was fighting cancer too.
Grandmother and granddaughter were going through treatment around the same time.
Even while dealing with her own illness, Grandma D continued helping Kaylee whenever she could.
Eventually, Kaylee reached remission.
Grandma D's battle continued.
And the family lost her.
Kaylee didn't simply lose her grandmother.
She lost one of her rocks.
Roughly a year later, Dad began noticing changes in Kaylee.
She was losing weight.
She wasn't eating.
Dad asked about her scans.
She hadn't gone.
So an appointment was made.
Her best friend, Aaliyah, went with her.
Aaliyah and her little boy, Waylon, had become an important part of Kaylee's life. Kaylee adored Waylon and loved that little boy almost like he was her own.
After the scans, Kaylee came home.
Dad was getting ready for work when Maverick banged on the bathroom door.
“Daddy, Sissy's out here. She needs to see you.”
Dad told him he'd be out in a minute.
Maverick answered:
“No. Sissy's out here crying. She needs to see you now.”
Dad came out.
Kaylee was sitting against the bedroom wall, crying hysterically.
She looked at him.
“Dad... it's back.”
Dad started falling apart.
And Kaylee told him:
“Dad, I don't need you to cry. I need you to be strong.”
Daddy's little girl was telling Daddy to be strong.
❤️ CHOOSING TO LIVE
After everything Kaylee had already endured, she decided she did not want to go through traditional chemotherapy again.
An oral treatment was attempted, but it made her sick.
Kaylee wanted to live.
She wanted to turn 21.
Have parties.
Be with her friends.
Be with her family.
And enjoy whatever life she had in front of her.
She wasn't giving up on life.
She was choosing how she wanted to live it.
🌧️ HURRICANE WEEKEND
By August 2023, Kaylee was back home.
She was weak, barely eating and barely drinking.
A hurricane was affecting Florida's west coast, and the bridges were closed.
Dad stayed in contact with her medical team at Johns Hopkins.
The moment the bridges reopened, he took Kaylee across the Howard Frankland Bridge to St. Petersburg.
The hospital was expecting her.
New imaging was done.
Dad remembered the earlier images when her cancer returned. To him, the spots looked like scattered white lights on a Christmas tree.
This time was different.
It looked to Dad like the entire Christmas tree had lit up.
Kaylee wouldn't look.
She didn't want Dad to tell her how bad it was.
She wanted to get upstairs to 7 South.
Get better.
And go home.
🎨 “DAD, I WANT TO HAVE A TRUCK SHOW.”
Dad had already packed bags.
Clothes for Kaylee.
Clothes for himself.
Some of her favorite things.
Kaylee brought coloring pencils.
She was admitted to 7 South, put on IV fluids, and slowly started getting hydrated and eating again.
The family had done this before.
Their thinking was simple:
Get Kaylee hydrated.
Get her eating.
Then bring her home.
Except this time, Kaylee never came home.
While lying in her hospital bed on 7 South, Kaylee had an idea.
“Dad, I want to have a truck show.”
That wasn't unusual.
Kaylee loved truck meets.
Her friend Heather had an F-150 called Silver Bullet.
Kaylee had her Ranger.
But Kaylee wanted her truck show to have a purpose.
She wanted everyone who attended to bring arts and crafts supplies.
Then Kaylee wanted to take those supplies back to Johns Hopkins herself and give them to the children.
Think about that for a moment.
A 21-year-old young woman lying in a hospital bed fighting cancer...
was thinking about other children.
Dad told her:
“Okay, Pumpkin. We can do that.”
They just needed to get her home first.
🎬 ONE MORE MOVIE WITH DAD
That same night, Kaylee and Dad shared another moment.
One of Kaylee's favorite childhood movies was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Grandma D had watched it with her.
Dad had watched it with her.
Dad couldn't get the movie to work on his laptop, so he pulled out his phone.
He climbed into Kaylee's hospital bed.
Kaylee colored.
Dad lay beside her.
They watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on a cell phone.
They giggled.
They laughed.
For a little while, there was no cancer.
There were no doctors.
There was simply:
Dad and his little girl.
🎗️ SEPTEMBER 11, 2023
A couple of days later, Dad and Amber went home to prepare the house for Kaylee.
Hospice had been contacted.
Oxygen and equipment were being arranged.
Kaylee wanted to come home.
Then the call came.
Her breathing had changed.
Dad and Amber rushed back to the hospital.
Everything happened quickly from there.
About five days later came September 11, 2023.
Kaylee got out of bed for the final time.
She went to the bathroom.
She told Dad and Amber she loved them.
Then she laid back down.
At approximately 8:45 that evening, Kaylee passed away.
She was 21 years old.
Daddy's little girl was gone.
🎗️ BUT KAYLEE’S STORY WASN'T OVER.
Only a short time earlier, Dad had made his daughter a promise.
“Okay, Pumpkin. We can do that.”
Kaylee never got to put on that truck show herself.
She never got to carry those arts and crafts supplies back into Johns Hopkins.
But her idea didn't die in that hospital room.
Because Kaylee’s Kid’z wasn't an idea created after Kaylee passed away and simply given her name.
The idea came from Kaylee herself.
From a hospital bed on 7 South.
Kaylee created the idea.
It became our job to bring it to life.
And we decided to make it bigger.
🎗️ KAYLEE’S KID’Z INC. 🎗️
Friends became volunteers.
Businesses became partners.
Fundraisers were created.
Donation boxes went into the community.
Arts and crafts supplies became truckloads of supplies.
And every year, we return to the hospital where Kaylee's idea began:
Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital.
We return on September 11.
The most painful day in our family's life has become a day of purpose.
Every box of crayons.
Every colored pencil.
Every craft kit.
Every infant toy.
Every donation.
Every volunteer.
Every business partner.
Every fundraiser.
Every truckload.
And every smile we can bring to a child...
traces back to one conversation between Kaylee and Dad on 7 South.
❤️ HER STORY CONTINUES
Kaylee's life ended on September 11, 2023.
Her story did not.
She is still Daddy's little girl.
She is still Grandma D's granddaughter.
She is still Amber's daughter.
She is still Maverick and Paisley's Sissy.
She is still Kojak's girl.
She is still the little country girl who loved fishing.
She is still the young woman who loved her Ranger.
And she is still the reason behind everything we do.
We couldn't fulfill Kaylee's idea with her.
So we fulfill it for her.
Every September 11, when we return to Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, we carry a little piece of Kaylee back with us.
Because a promise was made between a father and his daughter in a hospital room on 7 South:
“Okay, Pumpkin. We can do that.”
And we intend to keep that promise.
🎗️ For Kaylee.
🎗️ For the Kids.
🎗️ For Every Smile We Can Bring.
This is Kaylee’s Kid’z.
This was Kaylee’s idea.
This is her legacy.
And this is Kaylee’s story. 🎗️❤️
