Please remember the vigil for Karen and her family tonight at the ARC, at 5:30 p.m. Candles will be provided, and we will have a basket for any donations or cards that anyone would like to give. Thank you!!
I just have to say that Karen's entire family carries the same inner strength that Karen and her girls were all known for! What an amazing family!
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This photo was shared with us by Sunny, Karen's best friend. It was taken on Thanksgivng day.
On November 28th, 2009, Karen Kahler and her daughters Emily and Lauren were shot to death by Karen's estranged husband while they were visiting her grandmother, Dorothy, for the Thanksgiving holiday. Dorothy was also shot and as of yesterday was not doing well and being removed from life support. Sean, Karen's 10 year old son, escaped from the house physically unharmed.
We have created this website to help her family with immediate financial needs and Sean's ongoing care. Please feel free to leave comments for the family as I will be sharing this site with them. And, if you can contribute even a single dollar, it's a drop in the bucket toward helping this devastated family.
We have created this website to help her family with immediate financial needs and Sean's ongoing care. Please feel free to leave comments for the family as I will be sharing this site with them. And, if you can contribute even a single dollar, it's a drop in the bucket toward helping this devastated family.
Karen, Emily, and Lauren Kahler
This photo was shared with us by Sunny, Karen's best friend. It was taken on Thanksgivng day.
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7 comments:
Karen was strong. She was a great person and a truly talented trainer. She had a way of making you feel special, but she was also just darned good at what she did. When I first started taking Personal Training from Karen, I had a torn calf muscle from a non-gym injury. My rotator cuff had been injured more than a year previous and I had given up any hope of ever being pain free in my shoulder again.
Karen did a better job than the PTs at putting me together again. Then she started getting me in shape. I had been going to the ARC five days a week for almost two years when we met, and I thought I was pretty darn fit! Boy was I wrong.
The papers keep saying that Karen ran "brutally tough" boot camps. And they were hard, very hard. But the impression left is that she was some sort of drill sargeant, barking and yelling at us. Nothing could be further from the truth. The classes were very tough physically, but we laughed the whole time, every class. It was fun. She had a way of making each of us feel special. She was inventive and always cheerful. She will be truly missed.
Robin,
That is so true about the boot camp classes. They were physically tough but so much fun. One class she decided would be an "animal" boot camp class. We did not use one bit of equipment, but I think we worked harder in that class than on any piece of equipment! Karen was a completely bright, sunny, beautiful person!
I knew Karen when she was a trainer at Powerhouse in Texas and she was just a ray of sunshine..always smiling and yes, she was a challenger BUT she knew I had it in meto getit done right. She believed in us all and it just totally shocks me how someone could rob 3 BEAUTIFUL lives from this world..I will never understand. The world has taken a loss and it is 3 beautiful women. God bless you Karen, Lauren and Emily and the entire families. :(
Karen left an indelible impression on those with which she had contact. I remember when she was hired by the ARC and I met her for the first time.
We sat down together, shared training notes, laughed, and had ideas about how to put the ARC on the map as a place to train in Columbia.
She did just that. Karen was a pleasant, yet strong force. She could push you. She could console you...she had the quailities that set the standard for good trainers.
But Karen had something else...the ability to live openly, freely, expressively, beautifully...while being trapped in a horrific situation.
This exemplifies a pure spirit, a happy spirit, regardless the outcome. I hope that someday my spirit will shine as bright as hers. She touched many lives...she changed lives...she will be missed.
My friend Keith Fernandez is my workout pal at the ARC. For the past year he worked with 3 of us gals with Karen doing boot camp or shred and tread classes. We have all grown fond of each other -- and each of us really loved Karen. Keith is the runner in the group; after finishing one lap; he'd be on his 3rd. I have teased him that I'd trip him:-)
Anyway -- Karen called him her "Rock Star"! Whenever someone pushed themselves physically to the limit -- to do more --- she'd call out "You're a Rock Star". Keith will be our Rock Star tomorrow.
He's running the marathon tomorrow in memory of Karen and dedicating his run to Sean... "Be Strong Sean" is the homemade arm band that he made.
I took photos of it last night after the vigil at the ARC.
Here's a link to the marathon.
http://www.stjudemarathon.org/marathon.htm
I knew Karen, Emily, and Lauren when they lived in Greenville, Texas. I was one of Karen's close friends. My two sons were friends with Emily and Lauren. I know all of you knew Karen as a very talented personal trainer.
She also had so many other talents and positive attributes, like she could create these cakes that were absolutely phenomenal and like Gina said Karen was just a ray of sunshine and was always smiling no matter what was going on her personal life. When we would hang out together, we would laugh so much about anything. She knew how to cheer you up whenever you were feeling down, even if she was not feeling too great herself. She made the world such a much better place just by being here, and whomever lives she happened to touch were enriched by her sparkling and beautiful presence and lively spirit. Karen, Emily, and Lauren will be greatly missed.
What a senseless tragedy!
I was also a good friend of Karens and the family in Texas. We took many camping trips together and had many parties together. We shared many glasses of wine together. Sean and my little one would play in the backyard while we had our Tuesday coffee time at her house along with a couple of other moms. The older kids were in school.
When she first became a trainer, I was one of her first clients. She did so much damage to my poor muscles, that every time I tried to sit on the toilet, I would call her on the phone to tell her what she did! We would die laughing together as I was trying to stand up! I'm laughing and crying right now.
We were in a garage band together called The Shinanigans, along with Joe, Greg, Ryan and Steve. She was our singer and occassional banjo player. We played classic rock, country, a little jazz. She had SUCH musical talent along with Emily and Lauren. I loved all of us practicing together, she was such a caretaker for us. :) She would sometimes come to practice bearing gifts of sweets. She knew how to make us smile and work for our food!
She called me to her house one day and asked me if I would show Emily how to play "Wipe Out" on drums. I did. Emily recorded that song with Lauren and Cheynee in their band Daze Off. I was so proud of all three girls. At Karens 40th birthday party, Daze Off performed for family and friends. Lauren let me play her bass for a couple of songs even though I had NO IDEA how to play bass. She was so adorable just smiling (or laughing!) at me as I was pretending like I knew what I was doing.
When I got a divorce from my husband, Karen was there to help me get my house ready for me and my boys to move into. She helped paint and she was very particular on how the job was done. She was awesome.
I have so many more wonderful stories of my life with The Kahlers. I am so sorry that my friend lost her life along with her children by the hands of the person that supposedly loved them. All of our lives will not be the same from this time on.
PLEASE pray for Sean.
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