by Gabe Donio

When Regis Philbin of “Live with Regis and Kelly” shows up at your door on Peach Street with a truck from Lowe’s Home Improvement and 28 Lowe’s employees not far behind, you know something good is about to happen.
Something good did happen, and after everything that has happened to Kim Velardi and her family during the recent months, maybe it’s a way of making up for some terrible times.
Kim has been battling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia since December. During that time she has faced adversity and challenges, including grueling chemotherapy, two seizures and a stroke.
According to the letter Kim wrote to “Live with Regis and Kelly,” her mother Kathy witnessed that stroke, because she was basically living in the hospital with her daughter at the time.
After coming home from the hospital to her condominium, Kim had a new “roommate” – her mom. When I spoke with her last week, Kim said she was so used to being the one who helped others. Now her mom, her dad Sal, her brother Mike and so many other family, friends and members of the community were the ones helping her.
At some point, Kim said she decided she wanted to go back to being the one who helped others – particularly her mom. That’s when she decided to write a letter to the show, which annually runs a “Mom’s Dream Come True” contest.
The show received 10,000 letters.
There were five winners.
Thanks to her daughter’s letter, Kathy Velardi was one of them.
Here is part of what Kim wrote in her letter:
“I realized right from day one that not just my life would be affected by this illness, but even more the life of a mother who has to sit and watch her daughter go through all that I have been through and more. I know from the very bottom of my heart that I could not have made it this far without my mom being by my side each and every day. I’m not asking that you make her “ultimate” dream come true – I promise that I will take care of getting healthy and fighting to beat this thing on my end! I am asking that you make the dream of her having a fresh, new place in her home when she goes back to live there, because she truly has meant the world to me and needs this more than anything in her life,” Kim Velardi wrote.
I had a chance to speak with Kim this past week, and I have to say she is one of the most optimistic, upbeat, empathetic, caring people I’ve had the pleasure to interview. What struck me was that even after everything that had happened to her, she was still thinking of others: her mom, her dad, her brother, her friends, her fellow teachers, her students and the community.
Kim’s courage is a flat-out inspiration. So is her mom’s dedication to her daughter.
“The bond between a mother and daughter is close,” Kathy Velardi said.
Now that bond has helped bring about a Mother’s Day the Velardi family will never forget.
The Velardis’ story will be on “Live with Regis and Kelly” on May 9. The show starts at 9 a.m. on Channel 6.
I have a feeling the ratings for that show will be pretty strong in Hammonton, don’t you?

Gabe Donio is the publisher of The Gazette.