BILLINGS — Every day, people lose someone they love. The loss sometimes feels heavier, however, because of how much light that person brought into the world.
Adrianne Fordyce, a beloved fitness instructor, mother, daughter, and sister, died this year after a short battle with melanoma. She was 42.
Fordyce had an immediate and lasting impact on her Billings community. Within just weeks of joining Knock Out (KO) Fitness, she had signed on 23 clients, according to Corey Willis, the gym’s owner.
“Looking over, seeing her coffee cup, and–No, I am always going to be sad because she was a big part of this and she changed so many people’s lives here,” said Willis.
Saturday’s group fitness event, the last one Fordyce planned, was be held as a fundraiser for her family.
“We had this (event) scheduled, then she found out about her cancer,” said Willis, a professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. “We were ready for the fight, and that fight did not last long. It was pretty aggressive and it took her life.”
Fordyce’s career, however, tells only part of her story. Her full legacy is written in the lives she touched.
Approximately 150 people gathered in Billings to honor her life on Friday, just days after hundreds more attended a memorial in her hometown.
“She just accepted people as they were, loved ‘em where they were,” said Kamron Fordyce, her sister.
Kamron said Adrianne had a gift for seeing people others might overlook.
“I do not want to call them ‘at-risk youth’ … they are just kids who wanted to love, who needed love,” said Kamron. “She just listened, she fed them, she loved them. She has housed them sometimes.”
Adrianne Fordyce is gone, though the love she gave — and the lives she changed — continue to speak for the time she had and the way she spent it.
“She made time for (those who attended her celebrations of life). I do not know how she did it, but she did,” said Kamron.
