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Scholarships to honor crash victim's memory
BY MARK FONTECCHIO
The Patriot Ledger
Published Aug. 30, 2003
WEYMOUTH - More than anything, more than her voice, her spunk or spirit,
even more than her smile, Linda Close misses the smell of Jenelle's hair.
After a night out with friends, Jenelle Desmond often went to the bedroom of
her legal guardians, Linda and Pete Close. She would crawl into their bed,
rest her head on Linda's shoulder and gab about boys and parties and life.
Her long, straight hair would spread across Linda's face, and Linda would
rub Jenelle's head.
"I miss her voice and I miss her face, but I just miss the smell of her hair
so bad," Linda said, crying. "Those were some of our closest moments."
Jenelle, 16, died Aug. 19 when a Norwood teen crashed into the stone wall of
a Norwell cemetery. Another girl, a friend of Jenelle's, also died in the
crash. Police have charged the driver with drunken driving and vehicular
homicide.
Linda Close says it took time for those close moments to happen with
Jenelle. Four years ago, when Jenelle was 12 and first came to the Close
family as a foster child, she was an angry girl.
But during her time with the Closes, she grew from feeling she had no future
into wanting to buy back her late grandfather's fish-and-chips restaurant on
Cape Cod and manage it.
"As a 12-year-old, she had already witnessed some sorrow in her life. She came as this adult in a little baby's body."
Linda Close, foster mother of Jenelle Desmond
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That is why the Close family as created scholarships in Jenelle's honor.
One, at South Shore Baptist Church in Hingham, will help youngsters go on
missionary trips they couldn't otherwise afford. The other, at Weymouth High
School, where Jenelle was going to be a junior, will help pay a student's
college tuition.
The Close family doesn't like to talk about Jenelle's life before she was
placed with them as a foster child. But court records detail a tumultuous
past with her biological parents that includes custody disputes, allegations
of physical abuse and wrangling over child support payments.
"As a 12-year-old, she had already witnessed some sorrow in her life," Linda
Close said. "She came as this adult in a little baby's body."
The first year was difficult. Jenelle once told Linda and Pete, who are
deeply religious, that she didn't believe in God. If there was one, she
would tell them, he would send her back to her real family.
Those sentiments changed. Two Christmases ago, Jenelle took the other Close
children, Allison, 11, and Angela, 6, to a photographer. She gave the Closes
the picture and said she now felt like part of the family.
It was a year ago when the Closes became Jenelle's legal guardians. Last
Friday was the first anniversary of that event, and the family planned on
celebrating at a Bugaboo Creek restaurant, which features a mechanical
moose.
"We were going to go to Bugaboo Creek and have the moose sing to her," Pete
Close said.
Instead, they were planning her funeral.
Jenelle was killed when a car driven by James Flanagan, 19, of Norwood
crashed into First Parish Cemetery in Norwell, according to police. Flanagan
is due to appear in court next week.
Also in the car were Kristin Carriere, 15, and Amanda Quigley, 17, both of
Weymouth, and Adam Trudeau, 20, and Ryan Caulfield, 19, both of Braintree.
Carriere died at the scene. Trudeau was in serious condition at Boston
Medical Center Friday. Quigley and Caulfield were treated and released.
The Closes, though devastated at the loss of Jenelle, are not angry.
"I know that James Flanagan has been arraigned and will deal with
consequences," Linda Close said. "But I personally don't harbor any ill
feelings."
On the night of the accident, Jenelle had gone out with friends. As she ran
out the door, she got permission from Linda Close to stay out until
midnight.
At 12:06 a.m., the phone rang and the Closes readied themselves for an
excuse from Jenelle as to why she wasn't home on time.
But it was South Shore Hospital on the line.
They didn't tell Pete and Linda that Jenelle had died just minutes earlier;
they just said the two should come to the hospital immediately to see her
because she had been in an accident.
Linda Close, who said that people at the hospital were "absolutely
phenomenal," described how she found out Jenelle had died.
A doctor and nurse showed them some cloth wrapped around a piece of jewelry.
That was when the Closes knew for sure.
"It was her cross," Linda Close said. "That was her most precious piece of
jewelry."
The Closes remember the first time they met Jenelle.
"She had one of those big, white, puffy coats on," Linda Close said. "Even
in the midst of what was going on in her life, she had the biggest smile on
her face."
They will lock that memory in their minds. It is an image indicative of who
Jenelle was, they said, a girl able to weather the fiercest of storms and
come out on the other side, her hair wet but still with that smell a mother
can never forget.
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