By Eleni Himaras
reporter@ltview.com
And suddenly… life resumes.
When Jaci Stelloh found out that her son, Chase Keeter, had a rare blood disorder called aplastic anemia, she sent a letter out to family and friends titled “And Suddenly,” a catch phrase Keeter coined as a child.

 Over the past two years she has depended on the kindness of friends and their fundraisers to get by as she stayed at her son’s side through countless transfusions, months in the hospital, a bone marrow transplant and even a hurricane. Stelloh and Keeter have both settled back into their Briarcliff home where Keeter is slowly recovering during a precarious six-month period as his body adjusts to the newly donated bone marrow.
“Grace, just like a monsoon, has poured over us this entire time,” Stelloh said of the constant support she’s received from family and friends.
The aid, she said, often came serendipitously like when she met an out of town mother who needed a place to stay near her daughter’s Briarcliff home at the same time Stelloh needed someone to watch her animals while she traveled to Houston for Keeter’s treatment.
“We’ve seen miracles, everywhere,” she said.
Long self-sufficient, the single mother is looking forward to getting her property management business, Well-Tended, back off the ground.
“I’m really excited about it and looking forward to being able to do joyful things again,” she said.
She currently manages two vacation rental by owner homes in Lakeway, taking care of everything. On one of the homes, she recently repainted the house and redid the interior and exterior lighting.
“It’s just so good to be able to work again,” she said.
Services include housekeeping, pool maintenance, yard care, holiday decorating, prep for arrival, rental management, property and estate management, overseeing of maintenance and concierge service for guests.
She had hoped to dive back into work upon returning home in October but realized for the first time that she and Keeter had both been putting all of their attention on the physical and none on the mental.
“We all have that flight or fight response and when that fight response is on full throttle for two years, it’s hard to turn off,” she said.
The mother and son were in Houston for Keeter’s treatment at MD Anderson when Hurricane Ike hit last year. While Stelloh had prepared well for the event, packing chests and chests of ice to store her son’s medication and precooking several meals as he wasn’t allowed any raw vegetables for fear of contamination, she didn’t realize the toll a lack of air-conditioning would take on his fragile state.
They drove back to Austin to escape the heat but soon found out that because Keeter’s doctor was on vacation in Europe and the local hospitals did not use the kind of medication he needed, she wouldn’t be able to get him more by the time he needed it.
After intense research, she found a pharmaceutical company in Cedar Park that actually manufactured the medicine, explained her situation to the owner and got him to make it on site.
“When that Hurricane came through I just thought ‘Thanks! I didn’t have enough going on!,’” she said, but as always found a way through.
While life is returning to normal, Stelloh said, “we have six months of nail-biting and a year of caution to go.”
The biggest concern is that Keeter could develop host versus graft disease, a potentially fatal illness in which the new and current immune systems attack each other. After that, they will have a year of continuing recovery as he continues to build strength and stamina.
Stelloh said had a tall stack of thank you cards waiting to be written to all of the people that have helped them during the past two years and that it is filed on the to-do list along with throwing herself back into work. The work she says, that she enjoys so much eventually seems effortless when she hits her stride.
“I’m up for some effortless.”
For more information on Stelloh and Well-Tended, visit Well-Tended.com.