Jessie Jerke: Her spirit was strong to the end
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
21-year-old falls to mystery illness
By Mike Peters
mpeters@greeleytribune.com
Jessie Jerke: Her spirit was strong to the end
The strong woman is gone — the woman who displayed inner strength, her humor, and a will to fight to the end, who found a way to touch those around her. Jessie Jerke died Tuesday morning at her parents’ home in La Salle.
She was 21, and for the past two years had an unnamed disease that robbed her of her coordination, her vision, her ability to speak and walk.
Her family and friends remember her for her strength during that time, and for her sense of humor. She once said: “There’s a good chance that it’s this brand new disease, and they can name it after me and my doctor.”
It began in 2009, when Jesse was a music student at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood. She came home for a visit, had a toothache and then an emergency root canal. After that, she became dizzy. After that, the mystery illness slowly took over her body.
Her parents, Bill and Jeannie Jerke, took her to several doctors, to the Mayo Clinic, to medical specialists to try to find what was attacking their daughter.
“We’ve found there are hundreds, if not thousands, of unknown brain conditions,” Bill Jerke said. “Very few of them have been identified by name.”
Bill Jerke said their daughter kept her strong spirit to the end, even though she’d lost the use of her arms and legs and her vision was strongly affected.
Bill Jerke is a former state representative and Weld County commissioner. He sent email messages to friends Tuesday: “I’m sorry to let you know this morning that Jessie’s fight is over and she is finally at peace. This morning when Jeannie went to get her up she found Jessie wrapped in Jesus’ loving arms, tormented no more by this life. We appreciate the love that you have all given Jessie and us these past nearly 2 years. We know that she is in a much better place.”
Memorial arrangements are pending.
Fox 31 News KDVR Denver came to Jeannie and Bill's home on Sunday to do a story on Jessie. the above link is the story, we hope you take a moment to view it.
Jessie Jerke
(November 13, 1989 - April 5, 2011)
Jessica Dawn “Jessie” Jerke, 21 of LaSalle, Colorado went to be with her Lord and Savior on April 5, 2011. She was born on November 13, 1989 in Greeley, Colorado, and delighted her parents William Harry and Jeannie Maurine (Randall) Jerke, every day of her beautiful life.
Jessie was a member of the Greeley Children’s Chorale and the Continental Singers. She went on mission trips to Costa Rica and India. In 2009 a music festival to benefit Jessie was held at the Northridge High School where over 100 artists performed in her honor. She never lost her amazing faith and was very brave throughout her illness.
She graduated from University High School in 2008 where she sang, danced, and played tennis. She later attended Colorado Christian University majoring in Music Education and was a member of the CCU Women’s Choir.
Jessie was passionate about God and was a true missionary. On her 21st birthday she asked friends to donate to Harvest India instead of bringing gifts. She raised enough funds to drill 6 wells in India to provide fresh water for thousands of God’s children. To learn more about Jessie’s journey go to www.jessicajerke.com.
Survivors include her parents, Bill and Jeannie Jerke of LaSalle; 2 brothers, Ryan Jerke of LaSalle and Corey Holmes of Platteville; Stephanie Trostel of LaSalle; her aunts and uncles, Chuck and Joyce Jerke of Greeley, Gail and Mark Walker of Cheyenne, Frank H. and Shelli Randall of Greeley and Beth Anne and Terry Lewis of Edwards, California; her cousins, Stacey McCaul, Kurt Jerke, Mark Jerke, Jordanne McDonald, Heather, Hope, Kristyn , Jenna and Josh Dees; two Compassion children, BabyLove from Haiti and Apu from India; and a host of family, friends, church family and medical professionals throughout the country. She is preceded in death by her grandparents, Harry and Alice Jerke and Jerry and Ethel McDonald.
A funeral service to celebrate Jessie’s life will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at Christ Community Church, 1301 15th Street in Greeley. A reception will follow the service and a graveside service will be held at 2:00 p.m. at Linn Grove Cemetery. Visitation will be held at Moser Funeral Service Chapel, 3501 S. 11th Avenue in Evans from 1:00 until 4:00 p.m. on Sunday and from 4:00 until 7:00 p.m. on Monday.
Memorial gifts may be made to the University Schools Foundation to be used for scholarships to benefit University High School graduates. Checks should be noted “Jessica Jerke Memorial fund” and mailed to P. O. Box 336785 Greeley, Co. 80633.
500 mourners remember Jessica Jerke
By Dan England
dengland@greeleytribune.com
April, 13 2011 12:08 am
Oh, that smile.
Jessica Jerke flashed it freely in the snapshots that played across two screens Tuesday in Christ Community Church.
She gave that toothpaste- endorsing smile as her curls flapped in a breeze flanked by the ocean, under a cowboy hat that accessorized her University High School sweat pants and through goofy faces created with her father, former state Rep. Bill Jerke.
As she transformed from an infant dressed in dark pink to a girl in a tennis skirt to the young woman who loved God, music and her family, the scenery in the snapshots changed, from her La Salle home to mission trips in India to Colorado Christian University, but the smile, oh that smile, remained constant.
It remained even as the unknown illness that took her life April 5 worsened during her two-year battle, even as she obviously struggled with it. She smiled the same in her wheelchair, in her crossed eyes and in a body that would try Job’s patience.
More than 500 people came to honor her and celebrate her life Tuesday, and perhaps the most amazing thing about that, said her youth pastor, Jeff Lowther, was that everyone knew the same Jessica, from her friends to her parents to her pastors.
“She was the real deal,” he said. “She was not about fitting in. She was who she was.”
That was a woman beyond self-absorption, Lowther said, and in one example among dozens, she asked friends to donate to Harvest India rather than bring her gifts for her 21st birthday, and that money drilled six wells and gave fresh water to thousands. She cared for her family as they cared for her, asking friends to pray for them, even when they just seemed weary, not sick. She loved God, and she wrote that she actually looked forward to the day she would be “consumed by His awesomeness.”
Jessica loved to sing. She wore a Treble Clef necklace as a sign of her devotion to music, and she recorded several tracks, some of which she wrote herself. A few were played Tuesday during the service. Oh, that voice. It was the soprano of a songbird at sunrise, and she performed with the Greeley Children’s Chorale and majored in music education at CCU and toured with the Continental Singers, a nationwide music ministry group that travels around the world.
Lowther said he usually finds it hard to sum up a life in a eulogy just because of the years a person lived, but in Jessica’s case, it was because of the life she lived in her 21 years.
“She lived her life to the fullest,” Pastor Alan Kraft said, “and she touched many lives, as well.”
Kraft said the joy never left her, even when she found it hard to express her thoughts, and her voice wasn’t as clear as she would have liked. She told Bill many times that he was “the best Daddy in the world,” and she told her mother, Jeannie, and her brothers, Ryan and Coey Holmes, almost constantly that she loved them.
As her time came to an end, she wrote when she was frustrated with her speech, and Lowther read a few of those passages at the service.
“God is with me,” she wrote, “through the tough times and when I have to wheel myself around and I grow tired.
“He is with me.”
“Those last few words,” Lowther said, “were underlined.”
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More info » Jessica Jerke’s favorite Bible verse as her end grew closer was 2 Cor. 4:7: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.” |
Memorial gifts may be made to the University Schools Foundation to be used for scholarships to benefit University High School graduates. Checks should note “Jessica Jerke Memorial Fund” and mailed to P.O. Box 336785, Greeley, CO 80633.
