Biographie
JESSE LEE MARSHALL, 21 years of age, died Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at Floyd Memorial Hospital in New Albany, Indiana.
Survivors include his wife, Jaclyn Marshall; children, Kylee Renee Marshall
and Cameron Marshall; parents, Donna & Michael Hacker and Ed & Dottie Marshall; brothers and sisters, Matthew Marshall, Joshua Marshall, Kayla Nicole Marshall, Kayla Jo Broyles, Zachary Hacker and Ciera Hacker; grandparents, Don & Becky Kemper, Ed & Darlene Marshall, Carl & Vonda Woods, Bennie & Sharon Hacker and Donnie & Karen Warren; great grandparents, Milley & Fred Kemper and Mary Burgin.
Visitation will be from 3:00 pm ~ 8:00 pm Friday and after 9:00 am Saturday at Kraft Funeral Service, 2776 Charlestown Road, New Albany. His Funeral Service will be 12:00 pm Saturday in the Kraft Charlestown Road Funeral Chapel with burial to follow in Kraft-Graceland Memorial Park in New Albany.
You were born on a snowy winter day in January. Lots of family were there to welcome you. And I do mean lots. I recorded in your baby book all (hopefully) who were present. Your Dad and Grandma Kemper were in the delivery room along with me, of course. The other family waiting included Grandpa Kemper, Great Grandma Kemper, Uncle Brian, Carla, Bobby, Grandma Woods, Aunt Connie, Aunt Janie, Aunt Angie, Wade,
Joanna, and Aunt Barbara. They even had bets going on in the waiting room on what time you would arrive. Uncle Brian won with his guess of 7:27pm. Later, he'd joke and call you his little 727 baby. We were all amazed at the way you lifted your head up to look all around in the delivery room. You're big blue eyes melted many hearts.
You grew quick, learning many new things. You were an only child for a short time but you never seemed to mind. Matthew Scott was born just 13 months later and you loved your baby brother so much. You two became the best of friends. I don't recall much rivalry or jealousy at all, only a great brotherly love. Matthew grew big quick and people often thought the two of you were twins.
At age 3 you became big brother again to baby sister Kayla Nicole. You loved her much and liked to play. Although, one time your playing got you a big surprise. She spit up right in your face. It got in your mouth so you jumped down in the floor and started dragging your tongue across the carpet. Aunt Bobbie was there that day and we couldn't help but laugh.
At age 4 your baby brother Joshua Allen was born and he brought lots more fun. Although at age 1, when he became critically ill with heart failure, we never dreamed that one day you would face the same. Josh was brave and strong and went through a lot until age 8. He is still with us, considered healed (Thank God) and now almost 17.
As a young boy, we spent a lot of time with families. You never lacked a playmate. If it wasn't your brothers and sister, it was Mom or Dad, cousins, uncles, aunts, or grandparents. You developed a special closeness with uncle Michael who was only 6 when you were born. You grew to look up to him as an older brother. Uncle Michael played the guitar very well and probably who helped sparked your interest in playing.
Your aunts Connie and Janie were also young when you were born. They spent a lot of time with us doing fun things. They were there to play and later helped babysit. (It seems that we girls do get that job as young teens when small children are around). We lived only down the block from your aunt Vickie when you were 3. And later, when you started school at Green Acres Elementary, we lived only 1/2 block from your aunt Angie. You always had family close by.
I have recorded in your baby book that grandpa Woods gave you your first wallet at age 2. It had a dollar in it. You tried and tried to give your dollar away. You used to call all money "five."
You talked early and I recorded funny things you said in your baby book. You would get up in the mornings at 20 months and grab your dad's work boots, go to the door, and say "gotta go to work." You called a sandwich "swamich." You would knock on something at 17 months and then whisper "who's that?" At 2, you were Sesse Sharshall and Matt was Shashew Sharshall. One day when you all were playing with Jake Jeffers, he called Matthew "faffew." You corrected him, saying "No, Jake! Not Faffew! it's Shashew!" When you were almost 3, you'd put a "p" in front of words starting with "h." When you, Matt, me, and your dad would drive out to grandpa and grandma Kemper's and drive over bunker hill, you and Matt would get so excited and say "Wheee! Going over the big pill!" At age 5 you got up one morning and told me, "Mom, I'm hungry. My stomach is grouching!" These are all things I have recorded in your baby book along with a lock of your soft golden baby hair.
We spent a lot of time with Grandpa and Grandma Kemper, even living with them at times. They kept you probably a lot more as a baby because you were their first grandchild. Grandma has lots of memories of you in Sunday school because she was the teacher. And we all remember how you learned to play "This is the day the Lord has made" on your little keyboard at age 5. At age 6, you got up in front of the whole church, played and sang the whole song all by yourself.
As a boy, you started school and loved it. You were always very smart and you excelled in all of your classes. In 2nd grade, you were honored at a ceremony where few awards were given. You won a creative writing award. You also did well in art and was in advanced art class. You tried a few different sports as a boy, football, karate, baseball, and later track. The summer you were 8, you played baseball and made the All-Star team!
Then that winter, unfortunately, you had your first bout with serious illness, At age 9, you were in Kosair children's hospital for almost a week when a strep infection caused damage to your kidneys. You made a slow recovery and got back to normal (at least we thought). That may have played a part in what happened to you later, but I guess we'll never know.
As a preteen, you took the divorce of your Dad and I pretty hard. This, plus possibly other things unknown, may have been the catalysts for your troubled teenage years. And they were tough years! At times, I wondered if any of us would survive them. But you did survive and so did we.
Through your preteen and early teen years, your family grew even bigger, adding your stepmother Dottie, stepfather, Michael, and stepsisters and stepbrother, Kayla Jo, Zachary, and Ciera.
During those teen years, you also met Jaclyn, the girl you would later marry and love until the day you died. You had 2 beautiful children with her, Kylee Renee and Cameron Lee, who both inherited your big beautiful blue eyes.
You began to have a different outlook on life the older you got and began to try to take your responsibilities more seriously. You got your GED and began steady work, stocker at Wal-mart, cashier at Meijer's, and later roofing with your dad.
You enjoyed spending time with friends, many friends. You always loved a competition, especially things that tested your knowledge and challenged your mind. You liked to compete with family during TV gameshows like Jeopardy, Who wants to be a millionaire?, and Are you smarter than a 5th grader? You also liked some boardgames like Scrabble or Monopoly. You liked cards, (poker, euchre, and spades.) You also liked to play croquet, bowl, fish, boat, swim, play ping pong,, play cornhole, and play video games especially guitar hero! You even created your own video game characters who I heard stories about. You were quite amused at the chaos and destruction caused by Willie Lumpkins AKA Willie Lump Lump.
You and your brothers were always cracking jokes, "clowning", or "flowing." You all were very creative. You all came up with a really silly "joke". You'd say in unison, "Josh Marshall-no more like Josh partial-HaHaHaHaHa!" You'd use other names and rhyming words and by itself it really wasn't even funny. It was just that you all were so silly and laughed so crazy, you made it hilarious. The whole family had a lot of fun and laughs with you all.
For some reason, in your older years, you seemed to carry a sadness. I always said, "Jess is a young person with an old soul." Not that you didn't enjoy things in life, you did enjoy a lot of things, but at times there was just a sadness that bled through.
In July of 2008, at age 20, you began to have pain in your back and chest. You were quite aggravated with a couple of emergency room visits where you were told you were having muscle pain. You complained that you weren't taken seriously because of your age and the big tatoo-LOYALTY (in Chinese)-on your neck. The pain didn't disappear and new symptoms began. You developed a horrible cough and severe shortness of breath that got so bad you ended up in another emergency room on August 20,2008. you were then diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Many tests were run and the conclusion was that a virus had attacked and severely damaged your heart. We were all told then that you would need a heart transplant to live.
We could all tell by your attitude and actions then, and later by your own words, that the diagnosis was unbelievable to you. You couldn't believe that it was really that bad. At first, you couldn't believe that you could really be facing death. You tried to go on and live your life as usual and I know you felt frustration and sadness that you couldn't. As the illness progressed and you began to realize and accept the seriousness, you tried at times to do the things you were told to do. I believe, and we discussed it at times, that you knew in your heart that you didn't have much time left. I felt the same but never told you for fear that I would scare you or cause you to lose hope. When it all started, I felt in my spirit that you would not survive this illness, but always tried to believe that you could and would survive it. You said once in November, "I just want to make it to 21." You made it to 21 on January 6, 2009 and continued to get sicker and sicker. I don't know if transplant didn't work out because of your fear or your inner belief that you wouldn't live long enough, but probably a combination of lots of things.
You became crittically ill in late March and early April and almost died then. After that hospitalization, when you left Jewish hospital on April 9, I believe I saw and heard your acceptance of death then. You talked to me about dying and began to pick out songs for your funeral. You also talked to Dr. Gondi about considering hospice. When I cried that day, I could see the worry on your face for me. You looked at me and said, "Don't cry, Mom. It's going to be okay." I just said "I know but I'm still sad." Later, as we were on our way to bowl a few games (and I let you drive!) you looked at me and said, "Mom, let's just have some fun and when it's over, it's over, OK?" I nodded in agreement, trying to accept what I had felt all along would be the reality. And naturally, my and all your family and friend's hearts were breaking.
You were so brave and strong throughout. You endured tremendous suffering and pain and to us you very rarely complained. We even have many fond hospital memories and had jokes and laughter at times. We played clue and scattergories, watched comedians on TV, ate the no no's like Taco Bell, chili dogs, biscuits and gravy, and pickles! I told you once that I thought you could give up your smoking habit easier than your pickle habit. Even while so sick, you made me and Kayla laugh one day joking with the Doctor about "Can you feel the pain?" And also about the "bucket of ice."
Your last trip for transplant evaluation, I came to realize, was done solely for your family. You had promised your Dad, after talking with Dr. Gondi about hospice, that you would at least go and see what they had to say. When they told you 6 months before you would even be put on the list, you said, "I'm wasting mine and everybody else's time here." I believe you knew your time was near. When Grandpa and Grandma Kemper went to leave the hospital late evening of May 14th, they had just got downstairs when Grandpa stopped in his tracks. He felt like he had to speak to you one more time. He came all the way back and asked me if he could talk to you for just a minute. He asked if you were right with God and you said, "Yes, Grandpa." He also said he told you how proud he was to have you as his grandson and how much he loved you. Grandpa told Grandma on their way home that night that he felt that would be the last time he would ever see you alive again. He was right.
You did leave the hospital again on Friday, May 15th to come home and I believe spend your last days with your family and friends. You looked at me as I was crying again and asked me if I was angry with you. I told you "No, just so sad to watch you suffer and be so sick." I knew that it was over. I didn't know exactly how much time you had left, but I knew this was the beginning of the end.
By the time we got home, your color was grey again and I could tell that you felt bad. But, you stayed upbeat and playful. We visited with Uncle Brian and Aunt Marsha. You came home and played your guitar for the very last time. You played around with your little sis Kayla and with Micah. I even have a picture where you were "whipping" Kayla. Later that night, you went down to join your Dad, brothers, and friends for more visiting and good times. Your last picture with your Dad was taken that night. You then went to stay with your wife and babies.
Your little brother, Josh, was the last family member to see you alive when he took you to the hospital on the late afternoon of May 20th, 2009. I was on on my way to the hospital that night when the family was called. No one made it in time and we have to believe that was for a reason, one that we cannot know now. I prayed for you that night that God would hold your hand, take away any fear, and let your passing be quick and easy if it were to be. The hospital staff, your nurse Steve, said it was very quick and you did not suffer. I guess that was a nice thing to say but I know not completely true. We all would have been there if we'd known. .
You were loved so much and will be missed forever. Our lives will never be the same again but I know you wanted us to go on living and be happy. You said you wanted us to throw a party when you died. At the cemetery, the day you were buried, Kylee looked around in wonder at all the people there and asked, "Mommy, are we having a party? Is this Daddy's party?" Jaclyn said, "Yeah baby, this is Daddy's party."
Rest in peace now my baby. You'll always be forever young and we'll see you again in Heaven!
Survivors include his wife, Jaclyn Marshall; children, Kylee Renee Marshall
and Cameron Marshall; parents, Donna & Michael Hacker and Ed & Dottie Marshall; brothers and sisters, Matthew Marshall, Joshua Marshall, Kayla Nicole Marshall, Kayla Jo Broyles, Zachary Hacker and Ciera Hacker; grandparents, Don & Becky Kemper, Ed & Darlene Marshall, Carl & Vonda Woods, Bennie & Sharon Hacker and Donnie & Karen Warren; great grandparents, Milley & Fred Kemper and Mary Burgin.
Visitation will be from 3:00 pm ~ 8:00 pm Friday and after 9:00 am Saturday at Kraft Funeral Service, 2776 Charlestown Road, New Albany. His Funeral Service will be 12:00 pm Saturday in the Kraft Charlestown Road Funeral Chapel with burial to follow in Kraft-Graceland Memorial Park in New Albany.
You were born on a snowy winter day in January. Lots of family were there to welcome you. And I do mean lots. I recorded in your baby book all (hopefully) who were present. Your Dad and Grandma Kemper were in the delivery room along with me, of course. The other family waiting included Grandpa Kemper, Great Grandma Kemper, Uncle Brian, Carla, Bobby, Grandma Woods, Aunt Connie, Aunt Janie, Aunt Angie, Wade,
Joanna, and Aunt Barbara. They even had bets going on in the waiting room on what time you would arrive. Uncle Brian won with his guess of 7:27pm. Later, he'd joke and call you his little 727 baby. We were all amazed at the way you lifted your head up to look all around in the delivery room. You're big blue eyes melted many hearts.
You grew quick, learning many new things. You were an only child for a short time but you never seemed to mind. Matthew Scott was born just 13 months later and you loved your baby brother so much. You two became the best of friends. I don't recall much rivalry or jealousy at all, only a great brotherly love. Matthew grew big quick and people often thought the two of you were twins.
At age 3 you became big brother again to baby sister Kayla Nicole. You loved her much and liked to play. Although, one time your playing got you a big surprise. She spit up right in your face. It got in your mouth so you jumped down in the floor and started dragging your tongue across the carpet. Aunt Bobbie was there that day and we couldn't help but laugh.
At age 4 your baby brother Joshua Allen was born and he brought lots more fun. Although at age 1, when he became critically ill with heart failure, we never dreamed that one day you would face the same. Josh was brave and strong and went through a lot until age 8. He is still with us, considered healed (Thank God) and now almost 17.
As a young boy, we spent a lot of time with families. You never lacked a playmate. If it wasn't your brothers and sister, it was Mom or Dad, cousins, uncles, aunts, or grandparents. You developed a special closeness with uncle Michael who was only 6 when you were born. You grew to look up to him as an older brother. Uncle Michael played the guitar very well and probably who helped sparked your interest in playing.
Your aunts Connie and Janie were also young when you were born. They spent a lot of time with us doing fun things. They were there to play and later helped babysit. (It seems that we girls do get that job as young teens when small children are around). We lived only down the block from your aunt Vickie when you were 3. And later, when you started school at Green Acres Elementary, we lived only 1/2 block from your aunt Angie. You always had family close by.
I have recorded in your baby book that grandpa Woods gave you your first wallet at age 2. It had a dollar in it. You tried and tried to give your dollar away. You used to call all money "five."
You talked early and I recorded funny things you said in your baby book. You would get up in the mornings at 20 months and grab your dad's work boots, go to the door, and say "gotta go to work." You called a sandwich "swamich." You would knock on something at 17 months and then whisper "who's that?" At 2, you were Sesse Sharshall and Matt was Shashew Sharshall. One day when you all were playing with Jake Jeffers, he called Matthew "faffew." You corrected him, saying "No, Jake! Not Faffew! it's Shashew!" When you were almost 3, you'd put a "p" in front of words starting with "h." When you, Matt, me, and your dad would drive out to grandpa and grandma Kemper's and drive over bunker hill, you and Matt would get so excited and say "Wheee! Going over the big pill!" At age 5 you got up one morning and told me, "Mom, I'm hungry. My stomach is grouching!" These are all things I have recorded in your baby book along with a lock of your soft golden baby hair.
We spent a lot of time with Grandpa and Grandma Kemper, even living with them at times. They kept you probably a lot more as a baby because you were their first grandchild. Grandma has lots of memories of you in Sunday school because she was the teacher. And we all remember how you learned to play "This is the day the Lord has made" on your little keyboard at age 5. At age 6, you got up in front of the whole church, played and sang the whole song all by yourself.
As a boy, you started school and loved it. You were always very smart and you excelled in all of your classes. In 2nd grade, you were honored at a ceremony where few awards were given. You won a creative writing award. You also did well in art and was in advanced art class. You tried a few different sports as a boy, football, karate, baseball, and later track. The summer you were 8, you played baseball and made the All-Star team!
Then that winter, unfortunately, you had your first bout with serious illness, At age 9, you were in Kosair children's hospital for almost a week when a strep infection caused damage to your kidneys. You made a slow recovery and got back to normal (at least we thought). That may have played a part in what happened to you later, but I guess we'll never know.
As a preteen, you took the divorce of your Dad and I pretty hard. This, plus possibly other things unknown, may have been the catalysts for your troubled teenage years. And they were tough years! At times, I wondered if any of us would survive them. But you did survive and so did we.
Through your preteen and early teen years, your family grew even bigger, adding your stepmother Dottie, stepfather, Michael, and stepsisters and stepbrother, Kayla Jo, Zachary, and Ciera.
During those teen years, you also met Jaclyn, the girl you would later marry and love until the day you died. You had 2 beautiful children with her, Kylee Renee and Cameron Lee, who both inherited your big beautiful blue eyes.
You began to have a different outlook on life the older you got and began to try to take your responsibilities more seriously. You got your GED and began steady work, stocker at Wal-mart, cashier at Meijer's, and later roofing with your dad.
You enjoyed spending time with friends, many friends. You always loved a competition, especially things that tested your knowledge and challenged your mind. You liked to compete with family during TV gameshows like Jeopardy, Who wants to be a millionaire?, and Are you smarter than a 5th grader? You also liked some boardgames like Scrabble or Monopoly. You liked cards, (poker, euchre, and spades.) You also liked to play croquet, bowl, fish, boat, swim, play ping pong,, play cornhole, and play video games especially guitar hero! You even created your own video game characters who I heard stories about. You were quite amused at the chaos and destruction caused by Willie Lumpkins AKA Willie Lump Lump.
You and your brothers were always cracking jokes, "clowning", or "flowing." You all were very creative. You all came up with a really silly "joke". You'd say in unison, "Josh Marshall-no more like Josh partial-HaHaHaHaHa!" You'd use other names and rhyming words and by itself it really wasn't even funny. It was just that you all were so silly and laughed so crazy, you made it hilarious. The whole family had a lot of fun and laughs with you all.
For some reason, in your older years, you seemed to carry a sadness. I always said, "Jess is a young person with an old soul." Not that you didn't enjoy things in life, you did enjoy a lot of things, but at times there was just a sadness that bled through.
In July of 2008, at age 20, you began to have pain in your back and chest. You were quite aggravated with a couple of emergency room visits where you were told you were having muscle pain. You complained that you weren't taken seriously because of your age and the big tatoo-LOYALTY (in Chinese)-on your neck. The pain didn't disappear and new symptoms began. You developed a horrible cough and severe shortness of breath that got so bad you ended up in another emergency room on August 20,2008. you were then diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Many tests were run and the conclusion was that a virus had attacked and severely damaged your heart. We were all told then that you would need a heart transplant to live.
We could all tell by your attitude and actions then, and later by your own words, that the diagnosis was unbelievable to you. You couldn't believe that it was really that bad. At first, you couldn't believe that you could really be facing death. You tried to go on and live your life as usual and I know you felt frustration and sadness that you couldn't. As the illness progressed and you began to realize and accept the seriousness, you tried at times to do the things you were told to do. I believe, and we discussed it at times, that you knew in your heart that you didn't have much time left. I felt the same but never told you for fear that I would scare you or cause you to lose hope. When it all started, I felt in my spirit that you would not survive this illness, but always tried to believe that you could and would survive it. You said once in November, "I just want to make it to 21." You made it to 21 on January 6, 2009 and continued to get sicker and sicker. I don't know if transplant didn't work out because of your fear or your inner belief that you wouldn't live long enough, but probably a combination of lots of things.
You became crittically ill in late March and early April and almost died then. After that hospitalization, when you left Jewish hospital on April 9, I believe I saw and heard your acceptance of death then. You talked to me about dying and began to pick out songs for your funeral. You also talked to Dr. Gondi about considering hospice. When I cried that day, I could see the worry on your face for me. You looked at me and said, "Don't cry, Mom. It's going to be okay." I just said "I know but I'm still sad." Later, as we were on our way to bowl a few games (and I let you drive!) you looked at me and said, "Mom, let's just have some fun and when it's over, it's over, OK?" I nodded in agreement, trying to accept what I had felt all along would be the reality. And naturally, my and all your family and friend's hearts were breaking.
You were so brave and strong throughout. You endured tremendous suffering and pain and to us you very rarely complained. We even have many fond hospital memories and had jokes and laughter at times. We played clue and scattergories, watched comedians on TV, ate the no no's like Taco Bell, chili dogs, biscuits and gravy, and pickles! I told you once that I thought you could give up your smoking habit easier than your pickle habit. Even while so sick, you made me and Kayla laugh one day joking with the Doctor about "Can you feel the pain?" And also about the "bucket of ice."
Your last trip for transplant evaluation, I came to realize, was done solely for your family. You had promised your Dad, after talking with Dr. Gondi about hospice, that you would at least go and see what they had to say. When they told you 6 months before you would even be put on the list, you said, "I'm wasting mine and everybody else's time here." I believe you knew your time was near. When Grandpa and Grandma Kemper went to leave the hospital late evening of May 14th, they had just got downstairs when Grandpa stopped in his tracks. He felt like he had to speak to you one more time. He came all the way back and asked me if he could talk to you for just a minute. He asked if you were right with God and you said, "Yes, Grandpa." He also said he told you how proud he was to have you as his grandson and how much he loved you. Grandpa told Grandma on their way home that night that he felt that would be the last time he would ever see you alive again. He was right.
You did leave the hospital again on Friday, May 15th to come home and I believe spend your last days with your family and friends. You looked at me as I was crying again and asked me if I was angry with you. I told you "No, just so sad to watch you suffer and be so sick." I knew that it was over. I didn't know exactly how much time you had left, but I knew this was the beginning of the end.
By the time we got home, your color was grey again and I could tell that you felt bad. But, you stayed upbeat and playful. We visited with Uncle Brian and Aunt Marsha. You came home and played your guitar for the very last time. You played around with your little sis Kayla and with Micah. I even have a picture where you were "whipping" Kayla. Later that night, you went down to join your Dad, brothers, and friends for more visiting and good times. Your last picture with your Dad was taken that night. You then went to stay with your wife and babies.
Your little brother, Josh, was the last family member to see you alive when he took you to the hospital on the late afternoon of May 20th, 2009. I was on on my way to the hospital that night when the family was called. No one made it in time and we have to believe that was for a reason, one that we cannot know now. I prayed for you that night that God would hold your hand, take away any fear, and let your passing be quick and easy if it were to be. The hospital staff, your nurse Steve, said it was very quick and you did not suffer. I guess that was a nice thing to say but I know not completely true. We all would have been there if we'd known. .
You were loved so much and will be missed forever. Our lives will never be the same again but I know you wanted us to go on living and be happy. You said you wanted us to throw a party when you died. At the cemetery, the day you were buried, Kylee looked around in wonder at all the people there and asked, "Mommy, are we having a party? Is this Daddy's party?" Jaclyn said, "Yeah baby, this is Daddy's party."
Rest in peace now my baby. You'll always be forever young and we'll see you again in Heaven!