‘Jesse was full of life’

WESTERN BUREAU:

“We just get Jesse and him just gone suh,” said Shanoi Smith, the foster mother of 13-year-old Jesse Patterson, who collapsed and died while participating in a cross-country event at Anchovy High School in St James last Friday.

“I don’t know how to feel about him not coming home,” said Smith as she turned up at the school on Monday morning to collect the youngster’s belongings. “I tell him, make sure you come home; no football, no running – just book and pen and come home.”

Officials from the Ministry of Education and the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) arrived to offer grief counseling to the grieving teachers and students.

“He was really passionate about that day (Friday’s cross-country). Him just go and nuh come back. Right now, nobody nuh know how fi feel,” said Smith, who said her family and Jesse were bonding very well.

According to Smith, Jesse had been eager to win the race. While he didn’t take first place, he found satisfaction in finishing seventh, beating several older competitors in the process.

Smith’s relationship with Jesse was unique. She had been in an intimate relationship with his father, which resulted in two children. Jesse, wanting to be with his siblings, ran away from the family he was with, and Smith took him in.

Smith fondly remembered Jesse as a joyful, energetic child who had been looking forward to his new life with them.

“Jesse was a child full of life and so excited about his new beginnings with us. You always saw him with a smile. We wanted him to live his dream and come out the way he deserves to,” said Smith.

In his classroom, Jesse’s desk was filled with condolence notes written by his classmates.

Smith recalled him being excited when he was enrolled at Anchovy High in January with the help of the school’s principal, Lavern Stewart.

“He was so excited to start school, as he had done well on his Primary Exit Profile exams, which most people did not expect. He was obedient, and loved school so much. Jesse was at school every day. You don’t have to tell him to get up [in the mornings]; he gets to school early,” added Smith.

Stewart, who saw when Jesse collapsed shortly after completing the cross-country race, said his death has affected the school’s two campuses, especially the Dr Fidel Castro campus, where Jesse attended classes.

“It is an untimely loss, and so based on that, we have to offer support to all our members – our students especially,” said Stewart. “The students are in a very sombre mood and are more severely affected. On the main campus, where the incident happened, there are so many of those students who would have witnessed the incident. Some persons were intimately involved, offering CPR, so they are really not coping.”

Chadonni Morrison, a foster cousin to Jesse, said he was loved and will surely be missed.

“I think God had a plan for him. I think He wanted Jesse to experience life and love. Despite his bad experiences, he wanted him to know love and family. People who saw him for what he was believed in him and gave him a chance to prove that he deserved it,” Morrison said.

ashley.anguin@gleanerjm.com