Jessica was born Oct 27th, 1987. She was the last addition to our family. Her brother was 7 years older then her. Between her father, her brother and I she got a lot of attention. We had so much to be thankful for.
She was a very sensitive child. She would tell us everything she was thinking good or bad. She would tell us. She couldn’t keep it inside, and she couldn’t tell a lie. I admired that about her.
As she got older she still had that in her. It never went away. She was very active in sports throughout her Elementary and High School years. She played basketball since age 8, and also played softball. She was always involved in sports until she started thinking more about driving and boys. We bought her a car before she was able to drive. It sat in our garage until she got her license, and when that day came she was so excited. Finally, she could drive to school. Not knowing that car would cause her death, we were excited for her, too. We let her run in that car more and more, taking her friends places, going to school, work, and running errands. It only took one year of driving to take her life.
Looking back, at first we were always nervous about her driving, but as time went on we got too comfortable thinking she would always be here. We would always tell her to be careful, but we didn’t tell her enough about seatbelts. I don’t know why. That haunts us to this day. Actually I do know why. We as parents were not an example to our daughter. We were not consistent seatbelt wearers, and for this reason, we feel we could have prevented her death. She wasn’t wearing a seatbelt when she had her accident. Her car overturned throwing her through the sunroof, trapping her underneath her car.
The pain we feel every second of every day is unspeakable. It smothers my soul. Please God, I ask, tell Jessica we’re sorry. I hope no other parent will ever go through what we are going through now. Tell and teach your teens about seatbelts.
We wish we were in that car that day, Jessica, not you. Our beautiful Daughter Jessica Your always in our hearts and minds.
– Mom and Dad