Jace Lee Carrico 1999-2008

Jace Carrico is a nine-year-old little boy from New Sharon, IA who was diagnosed with a brain tumor (medulloblastoma) on Wednesday, December 17th, 2003. Over 90% of the tumor was resected by Dr. Corey Raffel at St. Mary's Hospital at the Mayo Clinic on Thursday the 18th. Jace completed a 6-week chemoradiotherapy treatment on February 25th at Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines. He completed a six-cycle maintenance chemotherapy treatment in October 2004. A recurrence was diagnosed on June 15, 2007.

At 7:30 PM on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008, after over a year of miraculous symptom-free life, Jace went to live with Jesus in the Kingdom of Heaven and await the reunion of his earthly family.

Journal

Friday, June 19, 2009 12:25 AM CDT

Happy 13th Birthday Jenna!! It's hard to believe that she is 13 today. Of course, with any "first", I know she is missing her brother today. We went and spent some time together at the cemetery. She prayed that he would send her a 'birthday sign.'




The Race was incredible - shirts are still available so please let me know if you are interested in one. We ended up having around 440 people the day of the race. Best of all, the rain stayed away. Thank you to everyone that was a part of our day.

After the race, we dedicated Jace's playground. I'm including a few pictures.










Here are the words that Travis shared at the dedication. They were beautiful....

I would like to thank everyone for coming today to join us in dedicating this playground built in memory of Jace to the glory of God. Our journey over the past 5 ˝ years has been shared by so many people and I can’t imagine having to have gone through it all without the support of this community. It was for this reason that Tara & I wanted to give something back to New Sharon that could be enjoyed by everyone, especially the children, and that would stand as a testament to our son and his special feelings for this little town.
This playground may not have all the bells and whistles that many of the new playgrounds do nowadays and it’s certainly not as big or as flashy. There are other playgrounds here in New Sharon that are very nice and, if judged by their outward appearances, may look “better” than this one. But this one is special. To me, it represents everything that was Jace. Just as this playground is special and different from the others here in town, so was Jace different than other kids, not to mention special. He couldn’t run fast like the other boys or ride the cool bikes and scooters that others could; I guess you could even say he wasn’t as “big and flashy” as other boys his age. But, given the trials he endured over the course of five years, he was certainly special and stood out among his peers for reasons other than the attributes so highly-prized by this world.
His uniqueness is reflected in the different parts of this playground. For example, his love of performing is reflected in the theater window under the canopy; his love of “neat” things like tree houses is reflected in the jungle canopy roof, and even his love of all things “Spongebob” is indirectly reflected in the large undersea creature that is the centerpiece of this playground. Incidentally, I think Jace would have really enjoyed drawing this playground and would’ve had taken extra time to make sure he included every detail in his work.
Finally, on behalf of Tara and Jenna, I would like to offer our sincere thanks to everyone for your love and support as we’ve rejoiced in the highs and suffered through the lows of life since December 17th, 2003. It is your love of Jace, concern for his family and your unimaginable generosity that has made this special place a tribute to a special boy.


Thanks for stopping by.

Read Journal History

Hospital Information:

Jace Carrico Memorial Fund
P.O. Box 97
New Sharon, IA 50207
641.637.4088

Links:

E-mail Author: carrico4@mchsi.com

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