Kelly Louis O’Loughlin described herself in an eighth-grade writing assignment as strong, sensitive and misunderstood.

“Don’t believe what you hear,” she wrote. “Get to know the person first.”

As a cheerleader, O’Loughlin was full of spirit, bubbly even. As a ballerina, she was graceful, dedicated.

As a daughter, she was family oriented and affectionate. She was loved immensely.

“She said, ‘I love you,’ more than anybody I ever knew,” said Kelly’s dad, Carl O’Loughlin. “And she meant it.”

Now, she’s terribly missed.

Kelly died in a car accident April 27, two weeks before her 16th birthday. The vehicle in which she was travelling collided with two elk. Kelly died at the scene.

The vivacious young Kelly grew up a happy child in Helena. She attended Smith Elementary, Helena Middle School and Helena High School. She knew she lived a fortunate life, said Kelly’s mom, Gail O’Loughlin.

“Every time we’d see a homeless person, she made me stop,” Gail said. “And as we drove away, she’d always turn to me and say, ‘We are really lucky.’ ”

She loved pink, shoes and footie pajamas, which she wore up until the day she passed away. “She was all girl with not an ounce of tomboy,” Gail said.

Kelly attended Laurie Bowlds’s third-grade class at Smith Elementary. Bowlds said Kelly had a luminous face with big, brown eyes.

“Her eyes were big, perfect circles and looked right into your heart,” Bowlds said.

Kelly was thoughtful, she said, and always present in the moment.

“When she’d stop to talk to you you’d have her whole attention,” Bowlds said.

Kathy Schaefer, co-owner of Queen City Ballet, said Kelly was a lovely dancer, a beautiful performer who always smiled.

“It’s a horrible situation when a young person is taken that early,” Schaefer said. “It’s heart-wrenching to anyone who knew her.”

Many who knew Kelly say they’ll miss her humor and her laugh the most.

“Even if you didn’t hear what she was laughing about, hearing her laugh would make you laugh,” Bowlds said. “She had a huge laugh like champagne bubbles.”

Kelly loved to sing. Her favorite course was Steve Michelson’s philharmonic class at Helena High. Carl said his daughter felt comfortable and at home in Michelson’s class.

“She was one of the brightest lights in our class,” Michelson said. “She had a cheerful and upbeat personality — outgoing and effervescent.”

Michelson said Kelly seemed to really care about music and looked for ways to improve her singing.

That was the Kelly of the outside world.

At home, she preferred the more popular music and enjoyed making mix CDs, which is apparent by the stacks of discs piled on her bedroom floor.

Her room and all its contents remain unchanged, as if she is still there in the white, black and hot-pink- painted room.

Those who knew Kelly are also somewhat trapped in the past, not wanting to let go of someone so young, so dear, so loved.

Her aunt, Laurie Neils, lays fresh flowers every day under the windshield of Kelly’s 1987 Ford Tempo, still parked alongside her parents’ home. Her brother, Kevin O’Loughlin, can barely speak of his only little sister who called him her “hero.” Her parents still pay her cell phone bill because shutting off service would mean not hearing her final voice message.

Time has frozen for the O’Loughlin family, which somehow waits to wake up from the bad dream.

That’s how Erika Vosbeck, Kelly’s friend since the first grade, feels too.

“It feels like a nightmare,” she said. “Sometimes I think I’ll still see her because it doesn’t seem real.”

Vosbeck, 17, said she and Kelly enjoyed cooking together, growing up inventing new recipes. She admits they never tasted very good.

The two girls made up dance routines and performed them for Gail. They made many a trip to Dairy Queen to enjoy cotton candy Blizzards.

Fifteen-year-old Jessica Bohler was in the back seat with Kelly when the crash occurred. Bohler struggles with the loss of her dear friend, whom she witnessed depart.

Bohler says she has taken many lessons from the experience, the first being never to drink and drive. The driver of the Honda Civic, Michael Colvin, who was 17 at the time, has pleaded guilty to felony negligent homicide. He admitted he had alcohol and marijuana in his system when the crash occurred.

“I’ve changed from it,” Bohler said. “I’m a lot more cautious now. At any moment anything bad can happen. I pay a lot more attention now and don’t do anything stupid anymore.”

Kelly was kind to everyone, Bohler said, even to those who were mean to her.

Kevin, Kelly’s older brother, speaks softly about his little sister. He was attending the University of Montana in Missoula at the time of her death, but has since moved home to be with his parents. They are comforted by his presence.

“An empty house would have been hard to endure,” Carl said. “We are glad he’s back.”

Kevin, who now attends UM-Helena, said he and his sister had a strong bond. It saddens him to think he’ll never be an uncle, that he won’t have a sister to turn to as his parents age.

“She was my only sibling,” Kevin said, “a person I had one of the strongest connections to. There is no one to replace her.”

Kevin’s void isn’t alone.

Bowlds, Kelly’s former teacher, says she was a “gift to the world.”

“All of us that knew her will never let go,” Bowlds said.

It remains extremely difficult for Kelly’s family to live with her death. They miss her. Every single day, they miss her.

Gail says she’ll never watch her daughter go to prom, wear a wedding dress or give her the grandchildren she someday hoped for.

“I just miss being able to hold her in my arms,” Gail said, wiping tears from her eyes.

Reporter Alana Listoe: 447-4081 or alana.listoe@helenair.com