OUR LIVES BEFORE JESSE
My name is Donna Stoner. This story is about our son, Jesse. Before his birth, my husband Ken, had been playing in the band circuit for several years. He had never been married before. I had been married before, for 3 1/2 years, before I met Ken. I had lost my first child during that marriage. At 8 1/2 months of pregnancy, God decided that he wanted my unborn son to come home to Him. We named him Donald Richmond Johnson. I never got to see him, but my husband and my mother told me that he was beautiful. 2 years later, I gave birth to my daughter, Shannon Lynn Johnson. Not long after her first birthday, Rob and I split up and divorced. He got custody of her, as I had no way to provide for her. Jesse got to meet her once when she and her husband came to stay with us for a few months, when he was 12.
Ken and I met in August of 1975. I was working in a lounge in Seaside, Oregon. Ken just happened to be playing in the band there at the time. We fell in love immediately. Sometimes, you just know. I moved to Seattle, Washington with him and we were married on June 10, 1976. He knew that I wanted another child, but he was not sure that he wanted to bring a child into this world, with the way things were here on Earth. Needless to say, God decided for him, and blessed us with the birth of our most precious Jesse John Stoner, on June 5, 1981. Five days before our fifth wedding anniversary. He was such a blessing and we were so happy, to say the least. Ken stayed at the hospital with me the majority of the 5 days we were in there. He held Jesse that second day in his arms, for 2 hours while our baby slept. We were very proud parents and Jesse was the joy of our lives.
OUR LIVES WITH JESSE
Having Jesse was the greatest thing that has ever happened to us. He was the usual child growing up. His words got all mixed up when he was very young. Rhinocerous was Rhiconerous, Kangaroo was Kanginroo, Popcorn was Pawcorn, Strawberries were Strawburries and he had trouble calling our dog Smurf, so he called him Murse. Jesse was into dinosaurs, Smurfs, Voltron, HeMan, Stickers, Ninja Turtles, Micro Machines and later, Pogs. He also showed talent as an artist, dancer and comedian, at a very young age. He would sit for hours, just drawing. Once, when he was 2 1/2, he demonstrated his talent as a dancer, to some neighborhood kids and their parents, at the local library. The kids had assembled a large piece of cardboard and were going to break dance on it. They were all too shy, to be the first one out there, so Jesse took it upon himself, to go out and break dance. He was just in a diaper and T-shirt. He heard the music and just had to go. They were all cheering and clapping for him. He was quite the entertainer. We remember how he used to watch the Michael Jackson video of Thriller. He would imitate Michael's moves to a "T". When the scary zombies showed up, he would run behind the couch and stand on the baseboard heater, all the time watching it. Jesse was a marvel.
Remembering Jesse's first day of school will always be etched in our minds. We had walked him the 3 blocks to school. Around 11:00 that morning, we heard someone running up the stairs to our apartment. The door flew open and there stood Jesse and he was crying. He thought that we weren't coming back for him, so he ran home, crossing a very busy intersection. We explained to him that it was only lunch break, and that we were coming to get him when school was over for the day. We took him back up to the school, and realized that they didn't even know that he was gone. The next day, we walked him up again, and told him we would return for him at the end of the school day. However, we didn't need to as the school district went on strike for 3 weeks. After that, he adjusted to school just fine.
When Jesse was 7, he and his friend Travis decided to start a fire in the adjacent vacant lot. We had left him with his Grandmother, who was living with us, and we had gone out for a bike ride. When we returned, Grandma said that Jesse had a little scare today. She told us what had happened. Jesse was laying on the sofa with his blackened tennis shoes on. We held him and told him he was lucky that he hadn't been burned. He had tried to stomp the fire out. Then I asked him, "How many times have I told you not to play with matches?" His reply? "I didn't use matches, Mom. I used a lighter." We learned from that moment on, that with children, you have to be specific!
We moved to Everett, Washington in April of 1988. We purchased a mobile home and the park it was moved into, was right next door to a new elementary school, Discovery, which was scheduled to open the following fall. It was just perfect. When Jesse was in the 5th grade, they built a middle school right behind Discovery. Mariner High was on the next block. It worked out great. No busing.
During Jesse's elementary school days, he did the normal things kids do. Skateboarding, bike riding, video games and he loved to play basketball. He kept a little wooden box with all of his worldly treasures in. Our cat, Tigger's whiskers, the skin he peeled off the bottoms of his feet in the summer, his baby teeth and dice. Who knows why kids treasure the things they do! During this time, he tried to flex his independence.
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