Schuylerville community gathers for vigil remembering Kaylin Gillis - Glens Falls Post Star
SCHUYLERVILLE — Over 150 people attended a silent candlelight vigil on Thursday night to remember Kaylin Gillis.
The event was held at Fort Hardy Park in Schuylerville to mourn the 20-year-old who was shot after turning down the wrong driveway in Washington County on Saturday night.
The Gillis family, wearing matching T-shirts with Kaylin and “always in our hearts” printed between angel wings, cried as they sat just feet away from easels set up with candles and photos of Kaylin while the community mourned with them.
Paper bags with tea lights in them outlined the shape of a heart on half of the basketball court as the sunset on the somber scene.
Gillis’ mother Angelique struggled to stand and someone in the crowd brought her a folding chair to receive hugs and condolences from those who held the victim close to their hearts.
Andrew Gillis, Kaylin’s father, spoke to the crowd briefly near the end of the hourlong vigil before tearfully making his way from one family to the next.
“We are going through the worst days of our lives right now and everybody being there has just been amazing and we really appreciate it,” he said. “It just goes to show how much love there is in our community.”
Gillis was fatally shot on Saturday while sitting in the passenger seat of her boyfriend Blake Walsh’s vehicle, which was turning around in 65-year-old Kevin Monahan’s driveway after getting lost trying to find a friend’s home in the rural town of Hebron.
According to her obituary, “Kaylin lit up any room she was in, and she was the glue of her family. She was loyal, outgoing, beautiful, and smart, it was a part of her natural instincts to always do the next right thing.”
Article includes more photos: https://poststar.com/news/local/schuylerville-community-gathers-for-vigil-remembering-kaylin-gillis/article_2d151520-dfa0-11ed-9edb-dbe3232df829.html
Friends of Kaylin Gillis cried as they gathered in Fort Hardy Park in Schuylerville on Thursday night to mourn the loss of the 2021 Schuylerville High School graduate. Jana DeCamilla