POCATELLO — Kelly Paries admits there was a special connection between her and her son Kory. Not a love any stronger, or even different than what she has for any of her four sons, but a connection nonetheless.

    That connection continues today, despite Kory’s death in a car accident more than 11 years ago. It’s a connection that has prompted her to write a book, titled “Kory,” that she calls a bit unique because of it’s blend of fiction and nonfiction.

    “The first chapter is a fictional account future events,” Paries said. “Chapters two through seven are nonfiction and are about Kory’s death. Then chapters eight through 25 are fiction.”

    Paries is a Pocatello native who graduated Pocatello High School in 1979, moving from the area a little more than a year later after getting married. Paries, her husband, and their children settled in Huntsville, Ala., in 1990 for what they thought would be three years. They are still there today.

    She was in Pocatello last week after attending her son Kristopher’s graduation from Brigham Young University in Provo. She spent two hours last Monday, signing advanced copies of the book at the Red Lion Hotel in Pocatello. The book is set for an Aug. 1 release.

    Kory was just 16 years old when he died on Dec. 23, 2002, during a heavy storm. Paries said his car hydroplaned and hit a tree, killing him instantly.

    Kristopher, her youngest son, was a passenger in the car and suffered serious injury. He was initially in intensive care because of the injuries to his head, but quickly regained consciousness and was deemed fit to go home the following day.

    It was a tragedy that Paries says was felt throughout the Huntsville community, in large part because of it’s proximity to Christmas Day.

    A Christian family that practices its faith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Paries also had a large faith community that she was involved with. But in additional to all of that, her sons, she said, are all avid hockey fans and each played on a traveling team throughout their respective childhood.

    “There were times when we would have seven or more hockey games to go to during a single weekend,” she said.

    That traveling hockey community, which Paries said was very active during the year prior to Kory’s death, was a close-knit one, another community, another group of friends who were affected his loss.

    All of this, she said, put Paries in a position where she was often sought by and frequently reached out to others who lost children since Kory’s death. Her ability to console others helped Paries to realize there was some good she could make from the tragic situation.

    But in writing the book “Kory,” Paries believes she is fulfilling a calling, something she’s been convicted to complete to help others understand death and to give them comfort about one of life’s most painful events, the loss of a loved one.

    The reason Paries calls chapters 8 through 25 fictional is because much of what is in them cannot be proven in the strictest sense of the word. She, however, believes it to be true.

    Much of those final 18 chapters are based on conversations she has had with her son since his death.

    “They are based on actual facts and experiences with Kory,” she said. “They are written based on visits with Kory and dreams.”

    The conversations began in April of 2003, about four months after Kory died. While she says he has appeared to her once, the bulk of their contact is conversational and mostly occurs when she is in prayer in an LDS Temple.

    “Sometimes he is reassuring me. Sometimes he is telling me about where he is, or what is going on there,” she said. “Once, he told me that he was watching over Kristopher.”

    That was during his schooling at BYU-Provo, and Paries said she didn’t think much about it at the time. But three weeks later, when Kristopher was rushed to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy, she understood.

    She says Kory has given her notice of other impending events as well. In December of 2004, for example, Kory told her there was a massive preparation going on where he was, a need to help a significant number of people. That was shortly before the Asian Tsunami of 2004.

    Skeptical herself, Paries said her concerns were quickly put at ease when Kory began telling her about some of his family members with whom he had no become acquainted. They were family members from both his mother’s and father’s side who had died prior to his ever being born, even prior to his parents meeting.

    Kory wasn’t just telling Paries who they were, however, he was talking about their personalities, about things even she had to confirm with other family members because she didn’t know about them.

    The picture that Kory has painted for his mother about where he is now is of a place with many levels. Which level you are at is dependent on your readiness. The function of those who are there is to watch out for those of us who are still here, whether that means to be with us during a difficult time, or helping us at our time of death.

    “They aren’t with us all the time,” Paries said. “They are assigned times to be with different family members.”

    Paries understands how all of this sounds. Between her concerns about how it sounds, and the thoughts of having to relive her son’s death through writing the book, she put it off for a long time.

    But the conviction to write “Kory” was too strong to ignore. Her drive, other than spiritual, is the hope that others will be helped by reading it.

    “If it comforts somebody else, it’s worth it,” she said. “If it can help any parent, because nothing is more excruciating than the loss of a child.”

    While Paries does believe her son is communicating with her, she doesn’t lay claim to being a medium or someone with special powers. She calls this a gift from God that is specifically between her and Kory. She does not talk to anyone else from the realm in which Kory now exists.

    If there were a handful of things she could impart upon people in connection with what she has learned from Kory during their conversations, among them, she said, would be the idea that no one is asked to go through any trial during their life without someone there to watch over you.

    “Usually it’s a family member,” she said.

    The most important thing she has learned?

    “No one goes before their time,” Paries said. “I have learned from Kory that everyone is assigned a time. If that is the time you are assigned, that is the time you will go.”