Jennifer Kelly, inspired her friends, family

“She was the kind of girl that everyone in class wanted to be friends with,’’ Luisa McDonough, a friend since they were children in Dorchester, said at a funeral Mass yesterday.

It seemed as if nearly everyone Mrs. Kelly charmed along the way - from her Dorchester childhood to high school in Milton, college in North Andover, a stint in Southie, and back in Milton to raise her own children - crowded into St. Agatha Church in Milton, where hundreds bid farewell to a woman McDonough said “was everything to everyone.’’

Mrs. Kelly, a chemist by training and a dedicated advocate for children who, like her own, have severe food allergies, died a week ago today in Massachusetts General Hospital. After leaving her Milton home for a run on July 13, she collapsed during a respiratory attack, said her husband, Eric, and never regained consciousness. She was 37.

“She did things that other people wouldn’t think about doing,’’ said Amy Delaney of Milton, who met Mrs. Kelly at 5:30 a.m. most mornings to walk.

If Mrs. Kelly knew a friend was going through a difficult time, she might spirit her away for a glass of sangria or a trip to get their nails done.

“She knew when you needed a shoulder, when you needed an ear,’’ Delaney said. “A lot of people depended on Jenn for support.’’

Eric Kelly said that “in some ways, she was an unlicensed therapist. I used to joke with her all the time that thank God she didn’t have a prescription pad.’’

Meanwhile, at Milton’s Collicot Elementary, Mrs. Kelly was forever present, “one of those people I’d see six times a day up at school,’’ Delaney said.

“She wanted everything for her kids, whether it be sports or music, and she got into it herself,’’ said Jean Lang, who lives across the street from the Kellys.

Mrs. Kelly thought nothing of driving to Cambridge so 8-year-old Ava could learn to play the harp. When 9-year-old Liam decided to pursue guitar, Mrs. Kelly signed up for lessons with him.

“She just had all this energy and seemed to be able to take on so much,’’ Lang said.

“Her children were the absolute loves of her life,’’ McDonough said during the Mass.

Jennifer Lee Chistolini was a “spunky 6-year-old in first grade,’’ McDonough said, and someone who held fast to her Dorchester roots, even when she left Dorchester for school elsewhere. She graduated from Fontbonne Academy, a private girls’ school in Milton, and Merrimack College in North Andover, where she majored in chemistry.

Mrs. Kelly may have moved from Dorchester, McDonough said, but “she proudly displayed her DOT sticker on her car.’’

An accounting major at Merrimack College, Eric Kelly might not have crossed paths with his future wife had they not both chosen a film class as an elective.

“The first day, six people were picked to stand up and talk about film,’’ he said. “As fate would have it, we stood next to each other.’’

It took a while, though, before he took her out for a first date, on St. Patrick’s Day in 1993.

“I thought personally that she was far above my station in life,’’ he said.

They married 13 years ago and lived for a while on L Street in South Boston, three houses up from the bathhouse. A chemist and a marketing liaison at companies in Boston and Hopkinton, she worked part time during the first years after Liam and Ava were born. She turned her full attention to motherhood after her son Ronan was born three years ago.

She taught faith formation at St. Agatha Church and volunteered as a class parent and with the parent-teacher organization at Collicot, where Liam and Ava attended.

Mrs. Kelly worked with school officials to ensure the cafeteria and classrooms were safe for those with food allergies. Perhaps because she had allergies herself, she could be just as protective of adults with allergies, such as Lang.

“If we went to events and people brought food, I knew that if Jenn made it, it was safe to eat,’’ Lang said.

Whether at a school event or out with friends she had known for years, Mrs. Kelly brought “her beautiful smile, her sparkling brown eyes,’’ and warm hugs, McDonough said.

A longtime fan of Madonna, Mrs. Kelly also had a keen fashion sense, McDonough said, and “knew every designer out there.’’

“Ava told me she’s making a quilt out of all of Jenn’s favorite clothes,’’ Delaney said. “I said to Ava, ‘Well, that’s going to be a cool quilt because Jenn had the greatest clothes of anyone I know. There’s going to be more colors in there than anybody knows what to do with,’ and we both started laughing.’’

During the eight days Mrs. Kelly was unconscious in the hospital, her husband said, it was if she was giving her friends a chance to say goodbye.

“It was tragic and all of a sudden, but she also gave the gift of giving people closure,’’ he said.

“To Jenn, we want to say a heartfelt thanks for how you brightened our lives,’’ McDonough said at yesterday’s Mass.

She added that when Mrs. Kelly’s friends meet for dinner, they will include her in the number when making a reservation and will set a glass of wine at her place.

“Even in the short 13 years we were married, I consider myself lucky,’’ her husband said. “She packed in more than anyone possibly could in that short time.’’

In addition to her husband and three children, Mrs. Kelly leaves her mother, Mary Lou O’Connor of Dorchester; her father, John Chistolini of Milton; a sister, Alexandra Chistolini of Milton; and her grandmother, Helen O’Connor of Dorchester.

Burial was in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Dorchester.