RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) – Jamie Perkins will never forget the kindness someone showed her family when they offered them to stay at their beach house in Key West following the death of her 10-year-old daughter Sawyer.
“Me and my other children and my parents actually got to go and spend time on a beautiful beach, in a beautiful house with the sun on our faces. And it gave us so much time to reflect and make new joyful memories together,” Perkins said.
It’s the time after a child’s passing that Perkins says many people don’t think about. Her nonprofit Sawyer’s Warriors, in honor of her daughter, picks one family to send on a vacation or grief retreat each year.
Sawyer Perkins (far left) Candice Thompson (middle right) Brooklyn Smith (middle left) and Jamie Perkins (far right)(Jamie Perkins)
This year, Perkins says the family is especially special.
“Candy [Thompson] and I met at St. Jude. Her daughter Brooklyn and Sawyer were really good friends. She was a few years older than Sawyer,” Perkins said.
The families were joined at the hip, spending hours together while the kids underwent their cancer treatment.
Brooklyn Smith (left) and Sawyer Perkins (right)(Jamie Perkins)
“We always stayed up late at the Ronald McDonald house and we didn’t cause trouble, but we had fun. We’d take the sofa cushions and slide down the stairs. We’d cut up, we had a good time,” said Candice Thompson, Brooklyn’s mother.
Brooklyn passed in April 2018, and two years, on New Years Eve, so did Sawyer.
“It’s been really tough. But also I got Connor here and Nicholas, they [her sons] give me reason to wake up,” Thompson said.
Thompson’s family lives in Mississippi, somewhere that rarely sees snow. Her sons really want to experience it, so Sawyer’s Warriors is sending them to a resort in Massanutten.
Brooklyn Smith (left) and Sawyer Perkins (right)(Jamie Perkins)
“They get to ski, they get to go to the waterpark. So, not only do we provide the accommodations for them, but we also send them money for their food, some travel expenses and also all the activities that they want to do,” Perkins said.
Jamie Perkins (left) and Candice Thompson (right)(Jamie Perkins)
The two mothers haven’t seen each other since Brooklyn’s funeral seven years ago, but their paths will cross again when Jamie visits Candy and her family at the resort.
“We’ll be reunited after many years apart,” Perkins said.
“I really don’t think I would have been able to see her again if we hadn’t been able to do this,” Thompson said.
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