Alexandra Grace Kelley-macek
Jan. 15, 1995-Jan. 27, 2020 Los Gatos
We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved daughter, Alex, also known as Alexis to many friends, passed away last month after much too short a life.
Alex was born in Portland, Oregon and was the light of her mother’s life from that day forward, and even before then, if truth be told. In 1996, after a year of many trips back and forth to the San Francisco Bay Area, Alex and her mom moved to Los Gatos to be close to Alex’s beloved grandma and grandpa and the rest of their family—for where else was there so much love to be given and received, but with her cherished family?
Alex was sweet, funny, feisty, active, creative, artistic, loving and smart from her very first days onward. She loved life and this manifested itself daily in her intense interest and curiosity about people, nature, animals and plants.
In 2001, she and her mother met Gerhard Macek, the man who was to become her forever father, bringing her new sisters, uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces to add to her family love fest. He was the glue that held her and her mother together in the dark days that came in 2002, and a faithful anchor, along with her mother, upon whom she could rely in the years to come.
At the age of seven, Alex became ill with a rare form of childhood brain and spinal cord cancer. She underwent surgeries, craniospinal radiation treatment and many cycles of intense chemotherapy to achieve remission with the expertise of amazing doctors and staff at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, as well as with the support of her extended family and a large community of friends. We are forever grateful for this second life that Alex was given.
In the years that followed her first round of cancer, Alex lived and thrived despite the health complications brought on by the cancer treatments she received. She dearly loved parties of all kinds, and who could ever forget the ginormous high energy Endof-chemotherapy party she hosted at the end of 2003? She loved to read books upon books, and the morning funnies, laughing out loud at the best ones and showing those to her parents. She created art by drawing, painting, sculpting, crafting and developing her own unique formulations of lotions and soaps. She traveled and learned German and French. She learned to play piano. She was a Girl Scout all through her school years and sold many, many cookies in our community. In 2013, Alex graduated from Los Gatos High School with her friends and peers, many of whom she had first met in kindergarten thirteen years earlier. She had a steadfast goal of becoming a marine biologist and following high school graduation, she moved forward with her schooling at West Valley College. She was working steadily through requirements to complete an associate’s degree in biology with the plan to transfer to a four-year college. Though the academic process was grueling at times, she never let setbacks define her; she always persisted and overcame the obstacles. She had a deep wish to work and serve saving our oceans and this planet. She joyfully became an exhibit guide volunteer at Seymour Marine Discovery Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2017, working there regularly until the fall of 2019.
In September 2019, Alex and her family learned that she had a new tumor in her liver, a complication of the radiation treatment from her first cancer. Alex continued to live and love life, traveling to the wedding of a beloved cousin, going to the movies and a steak dinner with a dear friend and making new friends among the nurses who cared for her at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. She was incredibly brave in the face of a terrible disease.
Alex will be forever missed by her parents, Judy Kelley-macek and Gerhard Macek of Los Gatos, CA. They are joined in mourning Alex’s death and celebrating her life by her sisters Tanja Macek (Rene Kozma-macek) of Goetting, Germany and Claudia Rodgers of Cedar Park, TX; as well as by her uncles and aunts, David Robinson & Kate Motoyama of Half Moon Bay/san Bruno, Susan and John Niceley of Walnut Creek, Janis Kelley of Sebastopol, David Kelley of Silver Spring, MD, Klaus Macek of Vienna, Austria and Gottfried Macek of Klagenfurt, Austria; her beloved cousins, Amelia Niceley, Katherine Schultz (Bryan), Victoria Niceley, Kyle Ritter and Rianna Bowen; her adored nephews and nieces, Niklas Macek, Beatrice Macek, Jordan Rodgers, Cooper Rodgers and Wyatt Rodgers; friends of all ages, and, of course, her beloved cat: Amber Cattywompus Catpuccino Kelley-macek.
Alex is preceded in death by her grandparents, Glenn and Amelia Kelley, Gottfrieda Macek, Matthias Kreuch and Richard Robinson, and an uncle, Douglas Kelley.
A Celebration of Life will be held for Alex from 1-5:00 pm on Saturday, March 21, 2020 at her home. Please call or e-mail Judy 408-506-4422, jrkelley@olcentral.com with any questions.
In lieu of flowers, consider a donation in Alex’s memory to your favorite charity or to any of these nonprofit organizations that were beloved by and of immense support to Alex: Seymour Marine Discovery Center, Camp Okizu or the Call of the Sea.