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Bearing gifts to cope with grief Mail Tribune / Andrew Mariman Huston Jernee, 13, holds a donated teddy bear he plans to give to a sick child in one of the local hospitals on Valentine's Day. Huston and his mother, Cindy, hope to collect at least 100 bears to pass out on the holiday in memory of Huston's best friend and a cousin who both died from leukemia. The family did a similar project in Nebraska before moving to Oregon last year. A Medford family collects huggables for children in local hospitals following two kids' leukemia deaths By JONEL ALECCIA Mail Tribune A Medford mother and her 13-year-old son hope to turn sickness and loss into light and love this Valentine's Day, with the help of public generosity - and armloads of teddy bears. Cindy Jernee, 46, and her son, Huston, are trying to collect 100 or more stuffed animals by Thursday to deliver to sick children at two area hospitals. The small private project is aimed both at cheering kids laid low by illness and celebrating the too-short lives of Huston's best friend, Josh Fisk, and his cousin, Adam Jernee. Josh, 12, died on Valentine's Day 2000 in Nebraska. Ten-year-old Adam died June 3 in California. Both boys were diagnosed with rare forms of leukemia. "It was very hard on Huston. It was hard on all of us," Cindy Jernee said. After Josh's death, Cindy Jernee struggled to find a way to help her son cope, and to keep him from associating the traditional day of love with loss. "We wanted to do something to remember Josh by, but we didn't want to do it in a sad way," she said. Last year, mother and son collected more than 200 stuffed animals from stores, businesses and private individuals in Lincoln, Neb., where they lived. Then, on Valentine's Day, they took the toys to sick and troubled children in hospitals, foster home centers and other treatment providers. "Everybody was really excited about it," Huston recalls. "There was this one 16-year-old boy who was really excited." "The teenagers were so touched that somebody would do this for them," said Cindy Jernee, now an assistant teacher at Southern Oregon Head Start. So when she and Huston moved to Oregon last year, they knew they'd take the project with them. And when Adam Jernee died, the first victim of a mysterious cluster of childhood cancers in Fallon, Nev., the pair became even more motivated to gather and deliver toys for sick kids. "Both Josh and Adam spent a lot of time in the hospital," Cindy Jernee said. So far, only about 20 toys have been collected. About 60 would provide stuffed animals for every sick child at Providence Medford Medical Center and Rogue Valley Medical Center, she estimated. But 100 toys would provide extras, just in case. It's a sweet gesture on an often-overlooked day, said Deborah Elliott, spokeswoman for Providence. Donations and visits are common during the Christmas holidays, but not usually for Valentine's Day. "I think there's always a need to reach out to people when they're hospitalized," Elliott said. "For children, especially, it's always a disorienting experience. I think it's great that they're doing this." Toys must be new, with their tags still attached, Cindy Jernee said. Donations can be left at several locations in Medford, including Key Bank, 2598 Barnett Road; Howard School, 286 Mace Road; IMD modeling, 1245 Riverside Ave.; KMED radio, 3624 Avion Drive; Adventist Book Center, 632 Crater Lake Ave.; and Rogue Valley Adventist School, 3675 South Stage Road. For more information, contact Cindy Jernee at 772-1256. By the time deliveries are done on Valentine's Day afternoon, Cindy Jernee doesn't know whose hearts will be fuller - those giving the toys or those receiving them. "I think I'm doing it as much for the people Josh's and Adam's deaths affected as for the kids in the hospital," she said. "It's healing." Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.