Casey-Lee Ballestrini

East Lyme — It is with a heavy heart we announce the passing of our beautiful, wild and crazy daughter, Casey-Lee Ballestrini, March 16, 2021, at Backus Hospital, three days after her 37th birthday. Everyone knew her bubbly love of life, friends and family. She was in a good place for about three years now, in a new relationship with a wonderful man, and heading for kidney dialysis this month, following with a kidney transplant. Casey finally succumbed to the battle she fought all her life.

She was born on her father’s 30th birthday, March 13, 1984, in New London, the daughter of Vinton and Kim Ballestrini. She graduated from East Lyme High School and lived and worked most of her adult life at various jobs in town: at Flanders Fish, Scott’s Meat Market, UBS Lumber, Smokey O’Grady’s, Barry’s Cleaners and Launderers, and her very favorite, Cash True Value Home Center, where she knew EVERYONE in town.

Her style of painting and drawing resulted in beautiful works of art as intricate and mysterious as she was.

Casey is survived by her parents Kim Larson and

Vinton Augustus Ballestrini; her brother Jason-Lee Ballestrini; her boyfriend Tom Longo; and the love of her life, her son Coda Vinton Riley, seven years old March 17, 2021. She is also survived by Coda’s father DJ Riley; a large family of aunts, uncles and cousins, “the Larson and Ballestrini clans”; and last, but not least, her beloved black Lab “River,” who has been with her through her ups and downs for the last 10 years.

She will be buried in Union Cemetery in Niantic, with a private family service. An outdoor service of memorial will be planned at a later date, when hopefully we can breathe safely around each other and the weather is warmer.

Please visit www.neilanfuneralhome.com to share a memory or note of condolence to Casey-Lee’s family.