Forever In My Heart
It all began, the summer of 2001,
when my brother-in-law Michael Jones introduced me
to his girlfriend, Bobbi Jo Sisk.
At first sight I knew we were two very different people.
I didn't think that we would get along very well at all.
I think it took a couple of times visiting
to notice that she was not all that bad,
and she loved my little boy.
She thought he was the greatest thing ever.
My family and I started spending almost every weekend with them
we didn't see them through the week
because they lived in Springfield.
Shortly after meeting her, I found out I was pregnant
with my second child while spending that weekend with them.
She was so excited to be a part of this,
and she could not wait for it to get here.
In February 2002, they were living with Michael’s mom.
They had come over to visit one day, and she left a card on my table.
Well, since I'm nosy, I peeked.
It was signed, “Love, Bob and Baby.
I was so shocked, I found my husband and gave him the card.
He told me that she was not pregnant,
and not to even think like that.
I think he was in denial,
this is his baby brother we were talking about.
Later on that same day, Michael and Bobbie came back
over to visit some more and to tell us the big news.
We were all sitting at my dining room table
when she told us she was pregnant.
I wish I could explain how terrified they looked about telling us.
We sat there for awhile and talked about what
they were going to do because it was time to grow up and fast.
Neither one had a job, and they lived with his mother.
And they didn’t even have a car.
My husband and I told them that day that we
would be there for them whenever they needed us
and that we were going to support them all the way.
Bobbie and I started to slowly get closer;
she called me whenever she did not know
what was going on with her pregnancy.
On October 22, 2002, Ariauna Markee Jones was born.
She weighed seven pounds five ounces,
a healthy beautiful baby girl.
Bobbie was only in labor for two hours,
so I couldn’t make it because they lived in Saint Roberts,
a little over an hour away.
Exactly a week later, they decided to get married.
They were going to be a family and make this work.
When Ariauna was about a month old they decided
to move to Licking into this very beautiful house
that her dad’s fiancé was going to rent out.
Now they were closer to us,
and I thought maybe now we could visit more.
However, with them having a child and us having two,
it was very hard to get out especially in the winter.
I got the chance to babysit on Thanksgiving Day,
because Bobbie had to go back to work and Michael
had work to do with my husband that day.
I got to give her a bath that day.
She even smiled at me.
I was just looking at her and
she was looking back at me and smiled so big.
It brought tears to my eyes.
I was so happy I really felt like her aunt that day.
I was going to spoil this child rotten.
Then the worst day of my life happened, December 24, 2002.
Christmas Eve it was suppose to be a happy day.
The day started for me at 9:04 am when I was checking my email,
I received a call on my Internet answering machine from an
E.R. nurse telling my husband he had some family members
there and to please call her. My husband was not home,
so I thought I would call and see what was going on.
I had a feeling it was Michael. I got her on the phone.
She said, “I have some of your husband’s family members here I think it’s his brother.
“Michael, Is he alright? What happened?” I said.
She said, “He is okay. Trinette, the baby is dead.”
“No no noooo. What happened? Is Bobbie alright?” I said.
Michael wanted to talk to me, and he would have to call me back because he was busy.
I first thought they were in a car accident
because it had snowed the day before.
I remember feeling numb all over and trying to
call my mom and get her out of bed to come to my house.
I really needed to go to the hospital to be with them.
So I finally got hold of my mother, and she rushed over.
I calmed down a little when she arrived at my house.
When Michael called me back, he told me what had happened.
Bobbie had taken Auna downstairs to rock her.
The baby had been sleeping with them, and they wanted her
to start sleeping in her bed because Bobbie had a feeling
something might happen to her.
So she took her downstairs to rock her to sleep rather than
just putting her in bed with them.
They both fell asleep in the chair.
When Bobbie woke up later, the baby was not breathing,
and she was blue and very stiff.
Michael also told me when she screamed
at him he would never ever forget that sound again.
Michael called 911 and picked her up and
carried her to the phone and began giving her CPR.
He told me he knew she was gone,
but there was something that made him try.
It was hard to understand him because he was having
a hard time talking, and Bobbie was in the background screaming.
Before he got off the phone he told me that
Bobbie needed me and wanted to see me.
They were leaving the hospital in a little bit
and they were headed to my house.
He also asked me if my mom could watch my kids because they
did not know if they could be around them right then.
So I told him that my mom was already here at my house
to just meet me at my moms.
I still had not been able to get hold of Eric yet either,
I was hoping he would be home by the time they got to my mom’s.
So I left a message at his work to call me at my mom’s when he got in.
He called me about fifteen minutes
before they arrived and pulled in the driveway five minutes before they did.
I will never forget for as long as I live how they looked that day.
I remember practically carrying Bobbie into the
house and her just melting in my arms.
I will never forget the sound of them crying or the way she
felt in my arms she felt like she had
lost twenty pounds in just two hours.
I could feel her ribs, and her face was thin.
After sitting there crying and talking about Auna,
I noticed whenever we talked about her their faces just lit up.
So then after a couple of hours, Bobbie told me she wanted to go see the kids.
So we went to my house and the first thing
Bobbie did was walk right to my mom who was holding
Isabelle and took her and went to sit on the couch.
She sat there and rocked her and cried.
My mom and I also had tears in our eyes; this was so sad watching her.
They decided they could not go home. They wanted to stay with us.
I knew this was going to be hard because if Isabelle woke up and
started to cry it would be hard for them to hear.
Isabelle did wake up, and I heard Bobbie start to cry.
This just broke my heart, but they did
not want to be anywhere else.
Four days later, they got the call saying that Auna died from SIDS.
Bobbie thought she had smothered Ariauna because of the
way they were when she woke up.
But the coroners told them that the reason why Auna was behind Bobbie
was because when she stopped breathing her body went
limp and slid behind her.
Bobbie looked like the world was just lifted from her.
She didn’t kill her baby.
So they decided it was time to go back home.
Bobbie really needed to go back and be with all of Auna’s stuff.
It was harder for Michael to go back because
his mind was messing with him making him see things
and hear things that were not there.
They moved into an apartment a couple of months after this.
He couldn’t sleep, and couldn’t be
by himself especially at night. He was terrified.
They visited Auna’s grave daily;
they sometimes visited more than once.
Bobbie just was not the same anymore, and our friendship started slowly slipping away.
We stopped talking in April 2003.
I never got to say goodbye or tell her how much
I loved her because she was killed in a car accident on July 18, 2003.
I believe everything happens for a reason so from now
on I will hold Bobbie and Ariauna forever in my heart
Written by Trinette
In Loving Memory