Chapter
35

At the time of this concert, Alex was a month away from turning five years old. She was growing up fast. That was something that Waylon had mentioned to us shortly after the accident that I didn’t process for many years to come. He correctly predicted that the kids of the church would age very quickly. Jackson and Alex were well known by all the kids at the church. Jackson’s absence from church would have to be talked about. Parents would have to have deep and important conversations with their kids about death, live, and what comes after. So many times, parents avoid these kinds of tough questions, but the kids that knew Jackson would surely miss him, and they wanted to know where he was. Like I said, so many of them grew up so fast. Many of them made professions of faith very early in their life.

 

However, Jackson and Alex knew a lot of kids both in and out of the church. Jackson and Alex had been attending Cedarwood School in Mandeville since their second birthday. It was a hoity-toity preschool designed to offer the youngest of students a place to reach their full potential. Jackson and Alex flourished in that environment and made many friends. One child was a pretty and sweet little girl named Chelsey. Jackson had a sweet crush on Chelsey. His teacher once told me a story about Jackson and Chelsey during naptime. Of course, Jackson rarely slept in any situation, so naptime at Cedarwood was not an exception. Jackson was disturbing Chelsey from sleeping, so the teacher placed Jackson away from Chelsey with a short wall of cubbies between them. They were then silent for a while. When the teacher checked on them, Jackson and Chelsey had stuck their hands through the cubbies and were holding hands through the cubbies as they laid down to nap.

 

Many years after the accident, Elna ran into Chelsey’s mom, Faye, at a shop in Louisiana. They exchanged pleasantries and asked how each of the kids were doing. Elna asked if Chelsey ever talks about Jackson. Faye said, “No. We were instructed not to.”

 

Puzzled, Elna asked why, and what she meant.

 

Faye said that after Jackson passed, Chelsey had severe anxiety. She would have panic attacks as a four- and five-year-old. Chelsey went to secular counseling for help. The counselor instructed them to remove all pictures of Jackson from Chelsey and to never talk about him again. That would be how they would treat the problem.

 

This was a stark contrast between how Jackson and Alex’s friends from church grew in their faith and delt with the reality of life and death and how their friends in the secular world distanced themselves from the truth. To me, one set was setting their sights on eternity, and one set was making it through this life.

 

Colossians 3 New International Version

 

3 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things