WKBT La Crosse, WI-NewsChannel 8-Tomah Family Looks to Their Son's Memory for Strength

Reported by Lara Reed

Tomah Family Looks to Their Son's Memory for Strength

In an instant the family that Brad and Jenny Parker had built over the last 17 years changed drastically.

On July 4th the family was heading home from a vacation in Florida when a car accident took the life of their 17-year-old son Jesse and left their 16-year-old daughter Bria fighting for her's.

Now as the Parkers start to rebuild their family they hold tight to the memory of their son and the dreams he had for his life.

"Jesse came out of the womb what I would call wise.  He showed empathy and compassion," says his father, Brad Parker.

17-year-old Jesse Parker should be walking the halls as a senior at Tomah High School.  But before school even started this year a summer vacation for his tight-knit family turned tragic. Brad and Jenny Paker along with their two oldest children, Jesse and Bria, were heading north through Georgia after spending a week on the beach in Florida.  Their SUV was driving next to a semi when a southbound truck didn't just veer into their lane it made a sharp left turn, smashing into the car in the exact spot Jesse was sitting.

Jesse's mother Jenny describes that day, "It was absolutely my own worst nightmare, seeing my own two children on the side of the road in such an awful state, and when we knew we'd lost Jesse it was more than I could bear."

As if dealing with the death of their oldest child wasn't enough, the Parker's daughter Bria was fighting for her life.  She has 19 fractures including a shattered shoulder and pelvis, a collapsed lung is preventing her from having surgery.  For a week after the accident Bria was in and out of consciousness.

"I would name off everybody, my aunts and cousins who were with me and even the person who hit us before I asked if my brother was okay because I knew he wasn't because I didn't see him and no one was talking about him and I just knew and I didn't want to know," Bria says.

She adds that as she continues to heal both physically and emotionally she misses her brother every day.

"It seems like our family is so small now. I just miss playing with him, him taking me to school. I just miss everything," says Bria.

And as the new school year gets underway she has even more reminders of Jesse.

"It was really weird because you'd see all of these spots where he would meet you at the end of school to pick you up and take you home and he wasn't there anymore and it just reminds you how he should be at school and shouldn't be gone and makes you really sad," she adds.

But the Parkers don't want to dwell on their grief.  While the family says they are physically aching for Jesse, they want to remember him for the young man he was, fun loving, compassionate and always rooting for the underdog.

Brad says, "I always told Jesse he was my hope for the world, my hope for the world because I did see that compassion and empathy and not only that he had it but that he would act on it."

Jenny adds, "He would look at things and think what do I really think my faith tells me and my view of the world tell me how I should handle those things and I'm just said I'm not going to see where that path would have led him because it was a pretty amazing path."

A path that this family will now pick up to honor the memory of their son.

The Parkers say it's now their mission to carry on their son's dream of helping to bring clean water to children in Africa.

In honor of Jesse's 18th birthday, which would have been on September 18th the family is working with the campaign "Charity Water Born in September"

Tune in to NewsChannel 8 at 10 p.m. to hear more about this charity and how the Parker family and Tomah High School are working to keep Jesse's memory alive.