Jennifer Van Heel stands under the pavilion where Jack’s celebration of life was held and remembers her son goofing off on float trips down the river. The celebration was on what would have been his 18th birthday.

A crescent moon and the words “I love you to the moon and back x infinity” are tattooed on Jennifer’s arm. Near the end of his life, Jack went to live with his father, Jason Pierre, in Louisiana to see if a change of scenery would help with his mental health. Jennifer told him that it doesn’t matter where we are, we always look at the same moon. “That was our thing,” she said.  

Jennifer sends messages to Jack each Friday through social media, his preferred way of communicating, rather than keeping a written journal. “I wrote this morning about both of his older siblings having babies,” she said. “He always loved kids and said nobody looks bad holding a baby.”

Jennifer holds a portrait drawn by Jack’s long-distance girlfriend of two years, Edith Dively, during a Skype session. Dively met his family for the first time during his celebration of life.

Jennifer puts her hand on Xander’s shoulder at Williamson Park. “Grief has kind (of) become a cloud in my life,” she said. “Losing so many people in the past three years has changed my outlook. I look for the littlest positive thing.”