COMMUNITY
struck the Nester family.
Their parents had divorced a few years ago and the kids were living with their father, 42-year-old Roy Nester, when he died of a heart attack on Christmas Eve 2015. It was devastating and shocking, Kyle said, but they tried to cope.
They went to live with their mother, Tammy Nester. But last month her chronic liver disease suddenly worsened and she died on Feb. 16. She was 46.
Now Kyle, a senior at Groveport Madison High School, has an attorney — who is donating her services — and is seeking guardianship of Madison so that he can raise her. Their grandparents in northeastern Ohio are working with him on shared legal custody, but a variety of circumstances and commitments prevent them from relocating here, Kyle said, and it is important to him that Madison stay in Groveport schools and with her friends. So the plan is for Kyle to have “residential parent” status and keep Madison here. A first court hearing is set for this week.
“As soon as I knew my mom wasn’t going to make it, it wasn’t even a decision. Maddie is my sister,” Kyle said. “It’s like every time we would get stable, something happened to uproot us. I’m not gonna let that happen anymore to her.”
Community’s embrace
Tracy Bayly said she can’t help but recall the adage “It takes a village to raise a child” when she thinks of Kyle and Madison Nester. It seems as though the whole city of Groveport has wrapped the two teenagers in love and kindness.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in Groveport, the way this community has rallied for these kids,” said Bayly, whose daughter, Mackenzie, is Madison’s best friend. “It’s like they belong to all of us and we’re going to make sure they are always OK.”
She said Madison is a terrific kid who dreams of being a cosmetologist. She’s a typical noisy and giggling teenager around her friends, but quiet and shy with people she doesn’t know, Bayly said, and moving to a new community would not be good for her. Madison slipped into the kitchen Monday night to grab some pizza and let out the family schnauzer, Sophie, but she had been sick that day and wasn’t up to talking about the family’s situation.
Bayly has organized a number of fundraisers that have raised several thousand dollars so far to help the Nesters with immediate financial needs. Family and close friends created two GoFundMe accounts, one as an education fund and another for long-term expenses. Donors already have planned and pledged to cover Kyle’s graduation party and cater the food, and someone will take his senior pictures for free. Bayly said she expects the same for Madison, a freshman now. And someone else volunteered to help Kyle with his college-admission process.
That last one is important, Bayly said, because no one wants him to give up his dreams.
A scholar-athlete, Kyle is hoping for a scholarship and still wants to attend Ohio State University in the fall to study engineering. He said he knows the road ahead won’t be easy. He thinks about graduation with no parents in the seats to cheer him on. Madison’s prom with no parents there to take photos. Holidays where he must make everything seem like normal. Homecoming dances. Dates.
“I know I have a lot of stuff I have to learn how to do that I don’t know how,” Kyle said. “But this is the right thing to do.”
Staying strong
Roy Nester was a bear of a man, a longtime youth football coach, an amateur photographer and a terrific cook. Tammy Nester worked as a medical assistant and was fun-loving, easy to talk with and was a nut about “Star Wars” movies and talk radio.
Kelly Simcoe, with sons who Roy coached and who played football with Kyle, considered both Roy and Tammy friends. Simcoe started the GoFundMe account, which has raised more than $35,000 so far. That will help in one way, she said, but the Nesters will need more than money.
“As parents we think, ‘What would we want people to do for our kids if this happened?’” Simcoe said. “Nobody plans for this. So we have to make sure that three months and three years down the road, we’re all still there for them. “
Their father’s life-insurance policy meant that Kyle was able to buy a car, so that’s one less worry. And their mother had paid the rent on their Groveport home through October, so living arrangements are set for now. Kyle had quit his job at Wendy’s to focus on his senior football season, but now knows he’ll soon have to find work again.
So much is up in the air. Yet those who love the Nesters say they do not doubt Kyle and Madison will be successful.
Schoonover said failure just isn’t an option.
“Kyle has such a good head on his shoulders,” Schoonover said. “He knows what to do, and I am so proud of him.”
Kyle said the support has overwhelmed him and Madison, but he wonders whether his working to keep Madison with him is only staving off the inevitable. There has been no memorial service for Tammy yet.
“I don’t think it has sank in for us,” he said. “Maybe people are kind of carrying us past the grieving stage.”
He has fears, but they are all for Madison.
“I worry about my sister, I guess,” he said. “What would she do if something happens to me?”