TAMMANY TRACE BUTTERFLY GARDEN DEDICATED
IN MEMORY OF KELLI WILLIAMS

Mandeville, LA, February 15, 2006 … The Tammany Trace Foundation announced today that a butterfly garden, which has been wonderfully landscaped at the Slidell trailhead to provide a butterfly habitat, will be dedicated in loving memory of Kelli Williams, a 22-year-old Slidell resident who died of viral myocarditis — an inflammation of the heart muscle.  The dedication will take place at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, February 22^nd at the Slidell/Carollo trailhead located near the intersection of Thompson Road and Highway 190 in Slidell.

While walking to her car on the campus of LSU in April 2005, Kelli collapsed from the sudden onset of cardiac failure due to a rare inflammatory disease brought on by a viral infection.  She had not complained of any health problems.

Although Kelli’s life was brief, it was a life that had a profound and positive impact on everyone she met.  Kelli’s parents were blessed with her birth late in their lives, already having two teenage daughters by the time Kelli was born.  For that reason, the family regards Kelli as a gift from God; she was responsible for bringing them all closer together.  There was nothing more important to Kelli than her family and her friends.  She wanted to make a difference, and in that, she succeeded. There were so many who knew and loved her.  Friends and family described her as a generous, outgoing, caring and loving person who dreamed of marriage and a family.  Her mother, Darlene Williams, said her daughter was “an extremely good person,” and that her friends called her “an angel.”

Friends and coworkers of the Williams family were so moved by Kelli’s sudden death, that they “wanted to do something special in her memory.”  In addition to a $200 donation to the Tammany Trace Foundation, friends and employees of Stewart Enterprises, Inc. installed a butterfly house for winter hibernation and a flat stone for butterflies to perch and sun themselves.  The stone is hand-etched with a poem dedicated to Kelli.  On cool mornings, butterflies need to warm their bodies before they can become active. To do this, they often sit on a reflective surface such as a flat stone, spread their wings, and turn their backs to the sun. Their wings work like solar panels, absorbing the sun’s warmth that is then transferred to their bodies.

The Tammany Trace Foundation’s garden has many excellent butterfly-attracting plants. The butterflies serve as a symbol of Kelli’s angelic nature and the fragility of life itself.  The garden will serve as a lasting memorial to honor the beauty of who she was.  It is hoped that others will visit the garden and remember to celebrate even life’s smallest moments as Kelli did.

Myocarditis—inflammation of the heart muscle—affects approximately 8 out of 100,000 people.  Viral myocarditis is preceded many times by a flu-like illness or gastroenteritis. Despite tremendous advances in the understanding of myocarditis, the clinical diagnosis of myocarditis is difficult, and current therapies for viral myocarditis are ineffective.

 

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