Goodbye Jason aka Ramses

I don’t know how many of you know the story but the student who plays the UNC mascot was hit this weekend walking to his hotel from a convenience store. He was with the Carolina men’s basketball team in New Jersey and suffered a freak car accident, which eventually took his life on Tuesday morning.

His name was Jason Ray and he was a senior who by all accounts was just amazing. An Eagle Scout and devout Christian with a 3.6 gpa and a job lined up after graduation - just starting his American Dream. He loved being the UNC mascot, he told people since this was his senior year he was going to just ham it up and be as crazy as he could.

Outside of just running into him at games all the time, our special connection to him was that he did Hayley’s birthday party last year. It is about time for her next birthday and it just hit us so hard. I had to tell her because all her soccer friends and parents were at the party last year - and she had a soccer game on Saturday, so I had to break the news that he was hit and very ill.

She was upset. She cried and asked a lot of questions. I told her we should pray as much as we can for God to look after him and his family. She named a stuffed animal after him and seemed down for awhile. She has a lot of questions about how and what happened. I tried to spare her the worst.

By the next day when things looked very bad, she asked if she could go to his funeral if he passed away. I didn’t want to consider that but then he did passed away on Tuesday. I knew it was coming by the things they were saying and as much as I love Carolina, his accident made me so much less concerned about the NCAA games. I always get emotional at the end of the season. I’ve been attached to the senior basketball players in some case for six years - watching them in HS and college, picking our favorites, meeting them, photos, games, autographs. The cycle has gone on for me since I was small and Hayley does it now too. The first player she ever met, ever took a photo with is graduating - Reyshawn Terry. She cried over his departure, she cried over Ramses. We just had a cry-fest for awhile over it all.

Our contact with Jason wasn’t very extensive but he was magnetic that afternoon. Hysterical, wonderful and the kids adored him. He did things in that Ramses suit I was sure I couldn’t even do in my own body. When he went down the big inflatable slide at Pump It Up, I nearly wet my pants laughing. He was the highlight of the party.

My heart is broken for his family and friends. Keep them in your prayers