On the morning of April 12, 2003, my  husband, Randell, and I were out early yard selling.  My cell phone rang around 8:15 a.m. and it was my brother-in-law stating that Jennifer had been rushed to the hospital.  There had been a fire at her trailer.  I asked how she was and he said that he didn't know.  We rushed to the Summerville Medical Center.  I told them our names and they took us to a very small room.  The nurse said that she would be back in a minute.  My husband started saying, "She's dead...she's dead." I told him to hush...we didn't know that.  Into the room came three people, including the hospital chaplain.  They were very sorry; they had done all they could do.  Jennifer had died from smoke inhalation. I was stunned.

 

The sequence of events that led up to our baby's death unfolded as the morning went by. Jennifer, or GinGee as family and friends called her.  Had gone out the evening before with her girlfriends.  She returned home the next morning around 5:30 a.m., calling her best friend at 6 a.m. to tell her to wake her up at 10.30, but if she did not answer the phone, come by to wake her up.  About 7:00 a.m. a neighbor across the street noticed smoke pouring out of the eaves on her trailer.  He called 911 and within a few minutes, police, fire, and ambulance arrived.  They kicked in the front door and found a fire in the kitchen/livingroom area.  They put out the fire and found GinGee crumpled by her bed in the back of the trailer.  She apparently had put french fries on the stove, then went into the bedroom, falling asleep.  They moved her to the back porch, which was only a few feet from her bedroom and tried to recuscitate her, but were unsuccessful.

 

The hospital staff assured me that the EMS personnel had done everything they could to save her.  But I knew that when GinGee closed her eyes on this earth and opened them in heaven, she saw her beautiful son, whom she had lost five years earlier.  She would not have wanted to return here.  Just two days after her death was the birth/heaven date anniversary of her precious son.

 

I miss her so very much.  GinGee was our youngest and was a very giving person, very sacrificial in her love for others.  I believe that God's purpose for GinGee's life was to be a caregiver to her nieces and nephew. She had for 12 years helped her older sister take care of her three children through some very difficult times for my older daughter. Finally, when GinGee felt she was free to pursue her own life, I believe that God called her home to be with her son.  She had grieved for him for five years, but was content in the fact that he was with Jesus.  She had told me two years before she died that she knew why God had taken Christopher from her.  I asked her how she knew.  She told me that she realized that if Christopher had lived, she would not have been able to care for her sister's children. She said she was okay with that because she knew that one day she would be with her son again.

 

Her task on earth done, God called her home and gave her the joy of being with her son again....Now her joy is complete.

 

I love you my precious, precious daughter. I miss you and Christopher more and more every day. One day we will be together again.  Until that day.....