By Emma Baird
EMS Press
Traverse City East MS
1st Place
Division MS, News Writing
Personality Profile
Cicely Ferris stood out in a crowd. Her sparkling clothes, hair extensions, and long nails set her apart from the rest. Her smile and comical personality bonded with her passion for singing and dancing to the oldies. Boating, camping, and spending time with family were just a few of her favorite hobbies.
That all ended on December 26, 2005. The day after Christmas, Jaylah Ferris’s mother died of a brain hemorrhage. Cicely had been suffering from lupus for years, and it finally caused her to have a brain hemorrhage. In the hospital, machines were the only thing keeping her alive. Cicely wasn’t responding to sound or touch. “She died when they unplugged her because she was brain dead,” Jaylah said.
Lupus is an autoimmune disease, meaning that the body attacks its own cells because it can’t differentiate between negative germs and diseases, and its own healthy cells. The body then produces cells that cause inflammation and pain in various parts of the body. It is a chronic disease with no cure yet.
Lupus can affect organs from your skin to your kidneys to your brain. Many times, lupus sufferers will have rashes on their skin that don’t react to typical skin care.
“She had a rash on her face and neck that looked like a butterfly.” Jaylah often thinks of her mother and believes her death has clouded the young girls life. “I don’t really know what it’s like to have a mom.”
On top of losing her mother, Jaylah’s father left soon after Cicely’s death.
“My dad would still be here if she was still here,” says Jaylah, “He felt that he couldn’t take care of us.”
Jaylah’s knowledge of her father is quite limited. She doesn’t even know or care what his name is.
“I’m actually really angry,” she said. “I don’t want to meet him because he left my sister and my brother.”
After the traumatic death of her mother and the absence of her father, Jaylah didn’t quite grasp the concept that she was never going to see her parents again. When she was in the first grade, the full impact finally grasped her.
“I didn’t really get time to know her” says Jaylah, “so, when I was old enough to find out that I wasn’t going to see her again and she died, it was hard to process in my mind.”
Jaylah was around the age of eight when she finally faced her loss. She reacted as most people surely would.
“I think devastated is a pretty good word to use.” Throughout all of the events of her life, Jaylah’s family has walked with her. Her twin sister, Jenna, has been through everything with her, and the two have been able to support each other, or at least understand how the other is feeling.
Her grandparents, who adopted the twins and their older brother, have taken the place of her parents. And every year, the day after Christmas, Jaylah goes with her family to spread roses at the Traverse City Presbyterian Church in memory of her mother.