It has been a year since Keith and Diana Appleby lost their daughter Kiana, who drowned in the neighborhood pool.Today, family and friends will gather to remember the vibrant 8-year-old who loved swimming and sharing toys with other children and who dreamed of becoming a doctor.`I can't say that there is anything that's been easy about this year,` Keith Appleby said. `It has been the most difficult year for my wife and I in every way.`At 9 a.m., Kiana's friends, family and classmates will meet at Citrus Park Christian School, 7705 Gunn Highway, to dedicate Kiana's Memory Garden, a garden on school grounds with an angel fountain.`I think this is an opportunity for her friends to remember their friend and hopefully maybe share some good times and fun times they had with Kiana,` Appleby said.A 12:15 p.m. Mass at St. Paul Catholic Church, 12708 N Dale Mabry Highway, will honor Kiana. Appleby said anyone is welcome to attend the garden dedication and Mass.After church, the family plans to visit Kiana's grave at Lake Carroll Cemetery and then spend time with friends and family at home in Westchase.`We have some very, very wonderful friends through my work and my wife's work and friends in Westchase who have been very supportive of us as a family,` Appleby said.Kiana's Dolphins swim team was ordered out of Westchase's community pool when a storm hit last May. As about 30 children stood under a shelter, one noticed that Kiana was missing. She was found at the bottom of the pool, according to the Sheriff's Office.In November, the Applebys filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Westchase's community association, management company and swim team. The suit claims that employees neglected to make sure that everyone left the pool and failed to walk around the pool or do a head count.Westchase officials have not commented on the case.Today, though, will be a day to remember Kiana, the little girl with dark hair who was, her father said, `a loving kid that wanted her friends to get along and share and be happy.`Stephanie Hayes can be reached at shayes@sptimes.com or (813) 269-5303.
St. Petersburg Times (FL) - May 5, 2006

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APPLEBY, Kiana Lynne, 8, of Tampa, entered into the presence of the Lord May 5, 2005. She is survived by her parents, Keith and Diana Appleby; grand-parents: Cliff and Lynn Appleby, of Somerset, Ky., Dr. Teofilo and Betty, of Ibague, Colombia, South America; uncles, aunts, and cousins, Dr. Boris and Claudia Bajaire and Isabella, Jeff and Sheila Jacobsen and Ali and Drew; a special friend, Mercedes de Espana. Those who loved her and she loved in return are numerous-family and friends in the Westchase community, the Citrus Park Christian School and St. Paul Catholic Church. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 10, 2005, at St. Paul Catholic Church with interment following in Lake Carroll Cemetery . In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Citrus Park Christian School Building Fund, 7705 Gunn Highway, Tampa, FL 33625, in her memory.
BLOUNT & CURRY FUNERAL HOME
Carrollwood Chapel
(813) 968-2231
www.blountcurry.com
Obituaries Tampa Tribune, The (FL) - May 8, 2005