The People's Voice: Faith serves as Oregon family's backbone

OREGON – Messages come in many ways, many volumes. Two weeks before Eric Jacobs was to report for football practice at Augustana College in the tail end of summer 1976, he got a not-so-subtle nudge.

“I don’t know what you believe, but God spoke to me – audibly – ‘Don’t go to school. Get married,’” Eric said. “I called Jackie and asked, ‘Does this happen?’”

“I told him that if God could speak through a donkey, he could speak audibly,” his wife of going on 40 years said.

At the time, Eric was a CEO – Christmas, Easter-Only – believer. But yes, it did happen – the marriage, at least. We can be sure of that. He married Jackie Thompson mere months later. They had six children, who’ve given them six grandchildren. But the message their youngest, Jasmine, would hear was a little harder to discern.

Oregon High School coaches were champing at the bit to have a multisport phenom like Jasmine in the fold. But when she was 13, she started getting headaches. They got worse – debilitating, even. She was diagnosed with scoliosis and referred to Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. Her back was eventually curved 52 degrees, her lower back 40.

She was treated with physical therapy and pain medication, but there came a point where her father grew tired of watching his daughter suffer so early in her life.

“This was a 14-year-old girl who had her whole life ahead of her,” Eric said.

He knew Loparex in Dixon, where he worked third shift, and where he’d worked for 30 years, would be shuttered soon. But at the moment, he had good insurance. So on a fated Monday, he asked Jasmine’s world-renowned doctor, John Sarwark, to rethink things. That night, Sarwark’s nurse called at 10:30.

“She said, ‘You’ve got a lot of work ahead of you. We’ve got surgery scheduled for this time. You’ve to get all your preliminaries done in order to make this happen,’” he said. “We were scrambling to get all the blood work done, and everything we had to get done before she could go in for surgery. It all fell into place. The surgery happened.”

He vividly remembers the day, 3 weeks before Jasmine's 15th birthday, that she underwent 6 hours of surgery that would fuse her T1 through T12 vertebrae with two titanium rods. Leading up, the most comforting scene played out.

“Dr. Sarwark and his team all gathered around Jasmine, and we prayed. It was just a great feeling, to know your surgeon, who was going to be operating on your daughter, was a man of God.

“And afterward, he said, ‘Don’t thank me. I did the surgery, but God guides my hands.”

‘I would do it all over again’

Eric and Jackie immediately saw a difference in their daughter.

“You know, I think it was almost instantaneous, with the experience she had,” Eric said. “For a 13-year-old to have that kind of maturity, to look in another direction – up until that point, everything was sports to her.”

“She matured overnight,” Jackie remembered.

Jasmine elected not to go to Oregon High School, to be home-schooled instead. Within a year of surgery, she began volunteering at Lurie. Technically, she was too young for its new PeerWise program, but she strong-armed mom into going along so she could be eligible for the program that launched at the same time she was having surgery.

Specifically, Jasmine got to be one of the first volunteers to counsel patients staring down the same surgery she’d gone through.

“I was in a lot of pain before the surgery, and I could immediately tell there was a difference after my surgery,” she said. “I wanted to give back, particularly to the hospital that changed my life for the better.”

Her message is invaluable.

“If I get to answer one question and ease just a little bit of anxiety, or answer any question they might have, that just made the pain, the recovery, the life-changing trajectory all the difference for me,” she said. “If they walked away not fearing it as much as they did before they talked to me, it was all worth it. I would do it all over again.”

After graduating cum laude with a health science degree and a business minor from Bradley University, Jasmine received an administrative fellowship at Lurie through Rush Medical College and is well on her way to a career – whatever that might be. The wherever is a little easier to determine – she’s bound and determined to work in the hospital that helped her become what she is today. Coincidentally, Rush recently confirmed the graduation date – May 26, 9 years and a day after Jasmine's surgery.

She’s not exactly sure which role she’ll play, but whatever it is, confidant should be listed on her business cards.

“You just need to be able to let them talk, and being able to listen,” she said. “I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know exactly what they’re going through. But having that shared connection, it’s about listening to what they need from the interaction – if it’s just support, or if they want to hear my side.”

Follow the leader

Missing sports wasn’t the only reason Jasmine elected to be home-schooled. Like her siblings, two of whom didn’t experience their first kiss until their wedding day, she didn’t want to be distracted as she walked a righteous path.

Jackie is the assistant pastor at the nondenominational Church of Jesus Christ Forever in Oregon, which telecasts its services to members around the country – even Hawaii, where the Jacobs’ 31-year-old son, Justin, lives.

Similar to his dad, he was a natural college athlete who received a calling. At age 21, he accompanied some college friends to build a house in Hawaii. The man behind the project, seeing Justin’s work ethic, hired him for more projects, including a retreat for underprivileged kids.

He and his wife, Danielle, after navigating a long-distance relationship – she’s from Oregon, too – had their first kiss on their wedding day, and they recently had a baby boy, Nali’i – which means king in Hawaiian.

About a month ago, Eric and Jackie flew down not only to meet their newest grandson, but also to celebrate the marriage of close friend Elisha Rinaldo – now Elisha Kaneali'i.

“I felt like one of these jet-setters, just going to Hawaii for the weekend,” Eric said, laughing. Having just been promoted to head of maintenance at Pinecrest Community in Mount Morris, he was relieved to be given the time off.

Elisha’s father, Joseph Rinaldo, was ordained along with Jackie. A car accident took his life in 1997, but his daughter stayed the path, also saving herself entirely for her wedding day, officiated by Kale Aluli, head pastor of Church of Jesus Christ Forever.

“She’s such a beautiful young woman, but she kept herself,” Jackie said. “It was the most wonderful wedding, and we saw God’s hand in everything.”

The Jacobs’ second-oldest daughter, Jessica Throw, also celebrated her first kiss on her wedding day. While her mother worked third shift, she was mom, more or less, for Jasmine when she was young.

Jasmine is 7 years younger than the next-youngest sibling, June, who was born in June, and a month early. The family was at a church camp, where they’d go every weekend. With no doctor available, June was born on the island. The late Dr. Franklin Swan came out to check her out and, finding she was healthy, the family lined a dresser drawer with a blanket.

“That’s where we put June,” Eric said. “We brought her out and continued our picnic.”

Such sacrifice, such devotion, such faith, and such miracles. … ““It’s probably hard for a lot of people to believe,” Eric said. … It’s no wonder Jasmine is poised to pass along her experience and passion.

“I’ve had my share of ups and downs and hardships, but not everyone gets to figure out how to do what makes them happy,” she said. “I get to make someone else’s day better, every day. That just makes me happy, knowing the grand scheme of things, I’m helping people.”