Jacksonville Burger King<\/a>, where he worked. Investigators say a fight broke out between one of his coworkers and another man, and Matthew tried to break it up when shots were fired. He was killed while trying to help.<\/p>\n\u201cI tapped into a strength that I did know that I have,\u201d his mother, Natasha Jackson, said.<\/p>\n
The graduation ceremony was supposed to be a joyful moment. For Matthew, the goal was to graduate alongside his twin sister, Madison. Both walked across the same stage, but this time, Madison walked without her brother physically beside her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was kind of emotional for her because she didn\u2019t have her twin there with her, but he was there in spirit,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cThat has been like a lifelong goal for them two. They wanted to graduate together.\u201d<\/p>\n
When we spoke with his mother, she shared May 22 marks the six\u2011month anniversary of Matthew\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday is the six\u2011month anniversary,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cToday I kinda woke up in good spirits because of the love that I received on Wednesday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson said she\u2019s grateful to Duval County Public Schools and Riverside High for allowing her to walk the stage and accept Matthew\u2019s diploma, calling it \u201can honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
She remembers her son as a peaceful young man who always tried to protect others and lift people up.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just had this thing with protecting people,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you were having a bad day, he would be that person to just try to crack a silly, corny joke and just put a smile on your face.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Jackson is turning her pain into purpose through a new foundation named in Matthew\u2019s honor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe name of it is Matthew\u2019s Legacy of Life Foundation,\u201d she said. \u201cMy goal first and foremost is I want to give scholarships out to the high school seniors in Jacksonville. I want to start that going on next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
She hopes Matthew\u2019s story will help other families who are grieving the loss of a child to senseless violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing through that grief process that is possible like you can thrive through this, we\u2019re hurting,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cI know I\u2019m hurting, but we can find great avenues to overcome this.\u201d<\/p>\n
His mother said Matthew had dreamed of joining the Marines and serving his country. She said support from friends, family and the community, through prayers, phone calls, hugs and messages, has helped keep her strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means everything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"18-year-old Matthew Jackson was a senior at Riverside High when he was shot and killed on Nov. 22…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-281711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}