Kristy Kavanaugh Nehilla always wanted to be there for her students. If she was out of town, she would hurry back so she could teach their scheduled lessons. If they were in the hospital, as occurred too often for some of her homebound students, she would go to the hospital with flowers to encourage them, sometimes to tutor them.
As a teacher in the Fairfax County school system's homebound program, Nehilla taught English and history to students who could not attend school for extended periods because of serious injuries or debilitating illnesses. She cajoled, charmed and cheered middle and high school students with broken limbs, cancer, severe migraines, mental disabilities and other conditions. For about five hours a week for each student, she brought class work to their homes. It wasn't always easy -- 10 years ago, a student tried to stab her with a knife -- but she loved her job.
Kristy Kavanaugh Nehilla worked for Fairfax County's homebound program, teaching students who could not attend school because of serious injuries or illnesses.
(Family Photo)
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With a reservoir of patience, she helped student after student keep up with regular school lessons. With sensitivity to their medical conditions, she showed them what they could do despite their circumstances. With a heart for children, she gave them someone they could trust and depend on.
"When students are too ill [one day], you have to have a teacher who is willing to go the next day. She was flexible like that," said Gloria Wilkins, administrative assistant for the county's homebound program. "You could count on Kristy. If she said she was going . . . she was there."
Nehilla, who died Dec. 20 after a heart attack at her home in Springfield, grew attached to some of her young charges, and they to her. The 57-year-old teacher had a personal touch and often became, as one parent wrote in 1990, "a valuable member of our support team" who went "above and beyond the call of duty."
Nilma Torres remembers the first time that Nehilla came to instruct her granddaughter, Nilmarie Thillet. "My granddaughter didn't want to come out of her room for anything," said Torres, who was a college professor in Puerto Rico.
Nehilla went down to the basement with Torres and began talking to Nilmarie through the door. "Come on out," Nehilla coaxed. "It's a beautiful day. Let's sit on the balcony."
She talked a while longer, asking Nilmarie what kinds of things she liked until finally, the door opened and Nilmarie emerged. They sat on the balcony and talked some more.
For the next four years until she died, Nehilla taught Nilmarie, who had come from Puerto Rico about five years ago and has lupus and is bipolar. For one English lesson, she brought the movie "The Diary of Anne Frank." They watched it and ate popcorn and then discussed that day's lesson. One Valentine's Day, she arrived with a heart-shaped cake, and when Nilmarie was in a coma in 2003, Nehilla visited her in the hospital's intensive care unit. Nehilla also introduced Nilmarie to her black-and-white sheltie, Bobbie.
Torres said that her 17-year-old granddaughter's physical problems are severe and that her mental state is sometimes fragile. "It's hard to deal with a person like that, but Mrs. Nehilla was magic," she said, noting that Nilmarie is now looking forward to graduating from high school in June.
Nehilla "kind of warmed her way into her confidence, into her love," Torres said. "She became her friend, and that helped her become her teacher."
Nehilla was born Kristy Kavanaugh in Redlands, Calif., the daughter of Ann Kavanaugh and World War II flying ace and football great Ken Kavanaugh. She and her brother, Ken Jr., grew up in the Philadelphia area. In her freshman year at Moravian College in Pennsylvania, she played field hockey. She also met a fellow student and football player, Hank Nehilla, whom she would marry upon graduating from college.
Her mother recalled the words her father told her then: "Kristy, I hope you won't throw away your education."
She didn't. She taught third grade for a while in Allentown, Pa., and groomed her two sons early to appreciate education and art. (They both have master's degrees and are engineers.) When they lived in Fargo, N.D., she taught English as a second language. After they moved to Northern Virginia in the 1970s, she decided she wanted to teach homebound students, said Hank Nehilla, who is president of Cardinal Concrete Co. in Springfield.
On trips with him to the Smithsonian museums, she would buy presents for her students, he said, noting that her generosity was not limited to the students. "She would buy something just so she could give it away."
Her son, Kenneth, added that when he and his brother Kevin where growing up, "no matter whose birthday, we each got something."
Kristy Nehilla was a woman of many passions -- her family, her students, her collections of seashells and pre-Columbian Toltec art, the poetry of Kahlil Gibran, the music of Elvis Presley, the New York Giants. And her dream home in Florida, called La Playa.
On Dec. 19, the day before she died, she was preparing to spend the holidays in the home the family had just completed on Anna Maria Island, Fla. She had slipped keys to the house in each family member's Christmas stocking.
"I don't think I could do what Kristy did," said Ann Kavanaugh, reflecting on her daughter's work and life outlook. "I think she really enjoyed the feeling of helping someone."
