Kirsty Gerlach lost her battle with motor neurone disease on Sunday. Photo / Supplied
Kirsty Gerlach lost her battle with motor neurone disease on Sunday. Photo / Supplied
Rotorua's Kirsty Gerlach was a shining light to all those whose lives she touched.
A selfless giver, a super mum and a woman with unshakable faith regardless of the cards that life dealt her.
Three years to the day she was diagnosed with motor neurone disease - bulbar palsy, Gerlach lost her battle with the illness on Sunday.
From running Rotorua's Kirsty Gerlach Hearing - which later became Bay Audiology - to being a loyal member of the city's Christian community, the 61-year-old was a well-loved local figure.
Little did many know Gerlach had also been a champion gymnast in her younger years, representing New Zealand at a number of events.
She went to Rotorua Girls' High School in the 1970s and it was there she became a national champion in the sport of gymnastics.
American gymnastic coach Marion Duncan scouted Gerlach and at age 17, she was awarded a full scholarship to Long Beach State University in California.
She excelled at the sport, becoming a four-time gymnastics All-American and it was there she met her future husband and then gymnastic coach, Steve Gerlach.
She was later inducted into the university's Hall of Fame.
Kirsty Gerlach was a bronze medallist at the Commonwealth Games and even qualified for the Olympics. Photo / Supplied
The pair married and had four children, Brandon, Sean, Cameron and Shelby - while moving between both America and New Zealand.
Gerlach opened her audiology business in Rotorua while her husband continued coaching both here and abroad. The family settled into their Lake Okareka home in 2002.
"She was the best mum you could ask for," Gerlach's daughter Shelby told the Rotorua Daily Post.
Sitting in their lakeside home, her family reflected on the woman they called mum.
"She never thought about herself," son Sean said.
Kirsty Gerlach at her audiology business with Stella Robson, 2, in 2011. Photo / File
He remembered back when they were at school and how she was always up at 6am to ensure the rooms were warm, the shower water was hot, breakfast was ready and the lunches were made when the children woke up.
Son Brandon remembered his "loving, strong, understanding and spiritual" mum, who lived a life "fuelled by Christ".
Jess Gerlach, Brandon's wife, said people consistently asked her if she was related to Kirsty Gerlach as she was so well-known and an "incredibly generous and giving" woman.
"She always knew how to make you feel special."
But Gerlach's kind nature did not stop there.
She helped with food and clothing outreaches locally for those in need and made a number of ministry trips to Cambodia over the years, where she helped with medical aid as well as getting people in impoverished villages into education.
The children in the village called her "mum" and she stayed in contact with a number of them right up until she died.
Kirsty Gerlach lost her battle with motor neurone disease on Sunday. Photo / Supplied
One of the villagers came to New Zealand to spend Christmas with the family, while another became a nurse and came over to help Gerlach a year into her diagnosis.
The family remembered well when Gerlach was diagnosed with motor neurone disease on September 13, 2017.
"It was devastating," Sean said.
However, Gerlach's faith in God never wavered and she found comfort and solace in her faith even as her diagnosis worsened.
She told her children that if God had allowed her to touch or change only one life, that would always be enough, Shelby said.
A documentary was made last year about Gerlach and her journey. At the time, she told the Rotorua Daily Post it would be her "legacy" for her children.
Shelby and Kirsty Gerlach had also got matching tattoos with the word "beloved" wrapped in forget-me-not flowers.
Kirsty Gerlach lost her battle with motor neurone disease on Sunday. Photo / Supplied
Although Gerlach had never been a fan of tattoos, it was the lifelong connection it represented for the pair after she died.
Shelby said the tattoo meant "everything to her" and was a piece of her mother she would always have with her.
Close friend Jessica Newman said "Kirsty had carried the love of Jesus with her where ever she went".
"She was extraordinarily kind and joyful. She made the world a better place to be in."
Gerlach's funeral will be held at Living Well Church next Tuesday at 12pm.
Colourful clothing is encouraged and the family asked for donations to hospice in lieu of flowers.
