Death:Jamie Lynn Mckillip

Having been alive for 19 years, I have unfortunately had the chance to experience what death is about. I have experienced the feelings, the emotions, what funerals and wakes are like, and everything that happens when a loved one dies. It is an awful thing that happens and something you don’t want to happen, but you know it does and it will eventually happen to everyone, people just don’t know when. I have had 4 family members die that I can remember. Three of them were uncles, and I had one great aunt pass away. My great uncles’ passing was probably the most recent which happened in January. These did have an effect on me, but not as much to make me cry. I was sad for my whole family, but it just didn’t hit me in the way it did with others. My mom and dad were extremely upset when my great uncle died. It was like my mom’s second dad to her because her dad died when she was 11 and he was always there for my dad too. These impacted my family and me, but it didn’t hit me like it did my mom and dad. I did experience a death though, which was probably the hardest for me.

This last August right before school was about to start, I had a friend get into a bad car accident; she passed away at the scene. I remember exactly what I was doing at the time I found out. I had just moved into the dorms and had stayed a couple days there. I was just getting back to my room from lower campus and was going on the computer when I got a phone call from my brother. He told me that he heard this girl (her name was Jamie) was dead. Then there were 4 others from my high school that were involved in the accident. He said two were in intensive care and might not make it. The other one they thought might have to get his arm amputated. Then the other kid that was involved was fine. When he said the girl was dead I didn’t believe him. I kept asking him if he was lying. He said that is what he heard and he wasn’t sure if it really happened. He said that maybe she isn’t dead. I had to find out if she was or wasn’t, I called my cousin who was really good friends with her. She didn’t answer her phone for awhile but then her dad picked up. Once he picked up I knew it was true because my cousin couldn’t explain it to me because she was crying so she had handed the phone to her dad. I asked if it was true what happened, and he said yes it was. I was so shocked and didn’t know what to think, I just kind of stood there quietly. My roommate asked me what happened and I told him that I just found out a friend of mine had died in a car accident. I spent the next half an hour calling my other friends that were at college in case they didn’t know because we were all away from our home town at college. We all knew this girl, were I come from it is a small town and everyone knows everyone or just about. Some people had heard it and a lot of my other friends hadn’t heard it yet. We were all shocked, and we still didn’t believe it no matter what people said. I was thinking the whole time she is only 17 she can’t be dead.

This was a bad week for the community of Mondovi because the students were just about to start school, summer was ending and everyone was getting into the swing of things. This put a damper on it all, and the whole town of Mondovi was shocked, other towns were even shocked. It probably didn’t hit me until I attended her wake that she was actually dead. I went into the building and there were a lot of people there and they were all in tears. It wasn’t a good thing to walk into. I scene my cousin and she came running to me, and gave me a big hug with tears streaming down her face, and that is when I started to cry. I was so sad for Jamie and for her family. She didn’t get to experience a full life like my uncles had or many other people had. She was only 17! She didn’t get to experience her senior year, her graduating, going to college, getting married, or living a fulfilling life. It made me mad that she wasn’t going to be able to do all that. When I went and saw her in the casket it was so unreal she looked so beautiful and peaceful just like she was sleeping. She was in her basketball jacket, because she loved to play sports and there were flowers all around her. I didn’t go very close because her parents were standing by there talking with people. I couldn’t even imagine being them, having to experience that with their daughter. All the other people involved came out fine and had no lasting effects.

I think this was probably the hardest death experience I have had yet because I knew this girl, I hung out with her and talked with her and she wasn’t that much younger than me and she was gone. She won’t ever get to have a life like we get to, because it was cut short from an accident involving reckless drivers and for not wearing seatbelts. I still can’t believe she is gone sometimes, I will see pictures of her somewhere and I will still think she is alive, but really know deep down she isn’t coming back. I am so glad I had the chance to meet her, to hang out with her, and to talk with her. She was an amazing person and didn’t deserve to go so soon, but that was God’s way saying time for her to come to heaven. I will always remember her, and remember the great times I did get to have with her. R.I.P. Jamie Lynn McKillip.

As a side note, a few months later a group of her friends had went bowling and had their cameras with and having a good time. One of the girls had dropped their camera and it had gone off with a flash. When they had picked it up, on the screen, barely visible, was a picture of Jamie, smiling that smile she does. They were all shocked and it brought tears and they couldn’t believe it and didn’t think people would believe them, but they saved the picture and posted it on facebook. They see this stuff on TV all the time, but didn’t think it could happen but it did. Everyone that looks at it believes it was her that day showing that she is alright and is safe and not to worry about her.