Remembrance for Jessica Jerke to take place Sunday - UPDATE
Staff reports
Monday, November 7, 2011
A remembrance for Jessie Jerke to mark her birthday will take place Sunday at the La Salle Community Church.
The event will include a showing of Jessica’s services and will run from 4-6 p.m. Sunday at the church, 102 S. Walnut.
Donations and checks to the University Schools Foundation will be accepted. Scholarships of around $1,000 have been given to three students attending Baylor, Oklahoma Wesleyan and Eastern Washington, but students can attend a college of their choice. You can also contribute checks at 22911 WCR 39, La Salle, CO 80645.
Jerke, the daughter of former state Rep. Bill and Jeannie, died of an unknown illness on April 5 after a two-year battle.
Thursday April 5th 2012 is one year since Jess went to heaven to live with Jesus. We will have a short memorial for her at Linn Grove Cemetary on the east side of the pond at 6:30 that day. We hope you can join us to remember her life, legacy and love.
Jerkes to discuss daughter’s mysterious illness for TV show
By Dan England
dengland@greeleytribune.com
Thursday, January 19, 2012
If the Oprah Winfrey Network does produce a show about Jessie Jerke and her mysterious illness, her parents, Bill and Jeannie, hope the episode is uplifting.
The goal may not seem to match the outcome, as Jessie died from that illness last April. But it’s a perfect fit for Jessie’s personality.
We decided to use it as a vehicle to remember her,” Bill said, “and frankly, she was a Christian missionary, and if this will be one of the vehicles to advance God’s word; that’s exactly what she would have wanted.”
OWN TV is the former Discovery Health Network, and the longtime show “Mystery Diagnosis” plans to send a crew out to the LaSalle family’s home starting today to film an episode about Jessie, who was 21 when she died after a two-year battle. Jessie died of spinocerebellar ataxia, which causes a degeneration of the brain. The problem is the disease has multiple types, and no one ever figured out what caused Jessie’s condition, whether it was some sort of auto-immune response or a cancer. A top expert of the illness said he’d never seen a case like Jessie’s before.
“There’s a host of things that can cause it,” Jerke said. “They really don’t know.”
He doubts the show itself will help solve the mystery, but he did say Children’s Hospital will start an ataxia clinic soon, and they will be a part of the research by giving blood and possibly some other information.
In the meantime, he waits for the film crew for another opportunity to talk about Jessie and her passion for God.
"For that, we’re willing to go through another bout of pain and memory and joy,” Jerke said.
