Marit Gentry Kercheval Clifford

Marit Gentry Kercheval Clifford died March

24. She was 16 years old, loved beyond all understanding and is mourned unconsolably by her grieving family. She was bright and beautiful and loving and compassionate and generous, and without equal.

Marit was born March 7, 2006 in Lovelace Women’s Hospital in Albuquerque, N.M., to Janis Carter Kercheval. With her mother facing life challenges during the early years of her life, Marit lived almost exclusively with her maternal grandparents, Rose and David Clifford in Los Lunas and Bosque Farms, N.M., and was adopted by them when she was 5 years old. Her childhood was nourished romping with cousins, Girl Scout Daisies and Brownies activities, a horse named Snickers, assorted dogs and aunts and uncles and a doting maternal grandfather.

She moved with her family from Bosque Farms to Albuquerque in 2015 and attended school at Osuna Elementary, Albuquerque Academy, Sycamore School and Eldorado High School. Family joking had her undecided as to whether she wanted to be a neurosurgeon or own a coffee shop — either of which she would have tackled and managed with intensity, aplomb and success. Sadly, her life ended before either of those, or other careers, could be launched.

She loved old classic movies, and watching them on “Movie Nights with Gramps” (especially anything with Audrey Hepburn), popcorn, blueberries, Dion’s pizza, and key lime pie, and loving her pets, defending underdogs and curating her very unique style. And she loved tabasco sauce — so much so that she kept an emergency supply bottle squirreled away in her bedroom, in case the kitchen pantry supply ran out before a resupply trip to the grocery.

Her birth mother preceded her in death. She is survived by her parents, Rose and David Clifford and maternal grandfather Howard Kercheval, all of Albuquerque; aunt and uncle Kathryn and John Vandenkieboom of Los Alamos, N.M.; aunt and uncle Beth and Kory Kemp of Austin, Texas; aunt and uncle Debbie and John Austenson of Seattle; cousins Sofia and Jack Vandenkieboom and Grayson and Carter Kemp, and lots of other kinfolk in Colorado, Kentucky, Arkansas, Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia.

She will be cremated and a memorial service will be held sometime in the summer.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Heights Club chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous in Albuquerque (8520 Marble Avenue NE 87110 505-266-8952 - heightsclub. com)