By: Justin Boone
jboone@ticats.ca
I will apologize in advance that this week’s Sideline-2-Sideline is taking on an unexpected format, but it’s been an unexpected week around the team. As I’m sure you’ve heard or read by now, Ticat Jamacia Jackson passed away Monday morning from an irregular heartbeat caused by an enlarged heart. It’s obvious that his family, friends, teammates, and coaches will all miss the smile he brought everywhere he went.
As we mourn the passing of a friend, there are countless others who had the pleasure of meeting Jamacia during his life and were impacted by him. Therefore, in the place of my usual column, I’ve chosen to share an e-mail I received Tuesday morning that perhaps best sums up the type of person Jamacia was and the sadness of his loss.
Hi Justin,
I will apologize up front for the length of this email, however I feel it is important for you to hear the story in regards to Jamacia Jackson and the lifetime memory he provided for my 8 and 11 year old daughters last year (7 & 10 at the time).
We sit in Box I and the girls have become very accustomed to seeing the players close up. On this particular day, my youngest daughter Stephanie was interested in #6 as his jersey number matched hers. She just wanted to wave and catch his attention. At one point near the end of the game I stood her on the seat and called out for Mr. Jackson – without hesitation he turned and saw her. The smile she had as he gave her a thumbs up sign was priceless.
She was glowing like it was Christmas Day!
The story does not end here… As the game was coming to a close, another unfortunate loss for our beloved Cats, Jamacia came to the wall, called for my daughter and waved her down. To her surprise he had taken his gloves off and gave them to her. At this point Santa fell into second place on Stephanie’s list of heroes and Mr. Jackson was now referred to as #1.
We were fortunate enough that the marketing event for the day was to go on the field after the game and meet the players. My daughters waited with great anticipation to meet this new hero face to face. Again without hesitation, he signed the gloves and took a picture with them.
The gloves and picture were promptly added into a shadow box and placed in our recreation room last year, where it is the pride and joy of both of our daughters to this day.
This is where the difficult part comes…. It was with great sadness that I had to explain to the girls this morning that Jamacia had passed away. Instant tears came from both of the girls, as their hearts had been broken as their favourite player and hero was not going to be in the Black and Gold this year.
Realizing this is a very difficult time in TigerTown, I would hope you could pass this message onto Jamacia’s family as their son will always be a hero for Stephanie and Paige, and my wife and I thank him for taking the time to make a difference in their lives.
Our prayers are with them and God Bless!
Rob, Kim, Stephanie, and Paige Carron.
