I would like to think I have many friends that I care about and care about me. Let me tell you about my little brother. Jasper Aaron Harke, was born in Syracuse, NY on August 24th, 1994. Well, Jasper meant a lot to me, I pleaded with my mom to take this baby that was disabled. My mom said, "Let me pray about taking him because I'm not Sarah... If you don't know Biblical history, Sarah is Abraham's Wife... She was very old when she had her son. My mom raised lots of foster children and her 2 own and 2 own adopted. My mom is old... It's true pushing her way through the 70's...
His bio mom was on drugs and she was a cocaine addict and probably on some other things. She gave birth to a normal baby but then took him home and blew coke in his face when he wouldn't stop crying. He ended up having a couple of cardiac arrests, the little man immediately ended up in foster care.
It was quite miraculous he lived. If you are planning to be a parent someday and are doing drugs, marijuana, party drugs, drinking, please get clean, Get clean anyways.
Well he loved the Panthers and other sports just like a normal kid should. We could always tell sometimes he was sad because he couldn't play sports like all the other kids. The neighborhood children were amazing with him and would visit him and play with him. He had a friend named Aaron Baker and some other friends that were also special needs children. He had his very own Border Collie named Mattie Boy named after Mattie Stopanic, a renowned special needs adolescence writer. Well before Jasper died he accepted Christ as his Savior. He touched so many lives from being disabled. This is how I know God doesn't make mistakes. He was one of the most happiest, entrapped soul there ever was. He was intelligent and flirtatious, loved the blondes... Gag! We didn't see eye to eye on that one. He was handsome, with his long eye lashes, dimples and devilish grin; he would have been quite the ladies man if he was still here. This is all while being confined to a wheel chair, stander and afo's. He used the computer to play games and loved science.
Mom and Dad took Jasper to a Church in Matthews, that was very accepting of him. There are several churches not open to children, period in the services. So they were accommodating to my parents who loved the church and wanted to be there. I think the song my mom said he loved was the Song of Isiah. He accepted the Christ into his heart and he used eye gaze and blinking to let us know, lots of occupational therapy, through questions how he was feeling. I think it takes a lot of empathy and bonding with your child to understand what they are trying to convey with out words. It's a great story to understand that anyone can come to saving grace. He was by no means a vegetable.
Cerebral Palsy children have high muscle tone and rigid bones, this brings us up to 2006. A nurse who was taking care of Jasper, was doing range of motion with him. She pushed down on his leg, the femur to be precise and snapped it during the exercise. She didn't tell anyone it was broken so it was a couple of days that another nurse noticed that he was in excruciating pain and we had him x-rayed. The whole thing was horrible. Mom said no lawyer wanted to touch the case. Well his body struggled to heal and didn't. He never was normal after that. His health declined and he couldn't do the things he loved doing, nor did he want to do them. Hospice came into the home, doctors, nurses, pastors, deacons and the friends all came to the home for a couple months. Some of the details are a little foggy but I know where he is and he's not here, he's gone to be with Christ. My family rejoices in the faith that he is whole, doing things only imagined.
This isn't as much about being sad as much as it's about being reflective. Never have I loved someone so much that I didn't cry. I cried a year later in the parking lot of Sam's Club. I broke down and sobbed. So death doesn't scare me. We are mortal men called to do more than mortal things. I'll leave you with that!
Thanks for taking time to read this,
R.I.P. Jasper Aaron Harke 01.23.2007