Luther Jones was about to make a decision from which it can be difficult to recover.
Has dad – his best friend – had just died on Oct. 20. His grandmother died two days later. He still had his mother. He still had his brother. But his family would never be the same.
He had decided to quit playing football at Kennesaw State. He was going to go home, where he said some people he knew had never done much after high school. He was going to retreat into himself.
And then, as he and his brother Dustin were rolling his father’s casket into the church in Blairsville, he looked to the left of the aisle and there sat more than 50 of his teammates from Kennesaw State’s football team, as well as the coaching staff and their families.
Jones’ family was suddenly much larger. He had a reason to keep going.
“They saved my life,” he said. “I wasn’t going to head down the right path. I knew if I went back home I wouldn’t do anything with my life. If it wasn’t for them and the support of Kennesaw State …”
Jones’ father, Brannon, was just 39 years old when he died. He lived in Georgia but worked in Kentucky. He would leave home on Sunday for the 6 1/2 hour drive to work, and would make sure he was back by Friday for his son’s football games at Union County. He would make sure to give Luther a special message of motivation before each game.
“He’s the guy that as long as I did good in his eyes, I was happy with myself,” Luther Jones said.
Brannon Jones suffered what was at first thought to be a heart attack on Oct. 10. He was taken to a hospital in Gainesville, before being transferred to a hospital in Atlanta a few days later. As he was being transported, Luther Jones’ grandmother – his mother’s mother – suffered a stroke and was airlifted to a hospital in Chattanooga.
Brannon Jones was scheduled for surgery on Oct. 20. Luther Jones said he was told his dad had a 75 percent chance of recovery.
As he was being wheeled into the operating room, he looked at Luther.
“Everything will be all right,” Luther remembers him saying. “Keep chasing your dreams.”
It was last time Luther saw his father alive.
He died at 8:05. Brannon had Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by loose joints, joint pain, fragile skin and arterial fragility, among other things. Luther said his father nor anyone else in the family knew that he had it. They learned after he died.
Bohannon knew how close Jones was to his family. That’s why he told the coaches and the players to consider going to the funeral. But, until recently, he didn’t know that the act of kindness – one he has done for other players who have lost family members and will do again – may have helped Jones emotionally recover.
“It was tough,” Bohannon said. “I knew it was tough on the kid. We wanted to do everything we could to support him.”
Jones rejoined the Kennesaw State team and continued to recover with his new family.
He suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament early in the Owls season, so playing time wasn’t an option. But it did lead to a way for Jones to honor his father.
As he was dragging a weighted sled for a mile walk as part of his recovery during the spring, he became inspired: he would hold a camp to raise awareness about EDS, honor his father, and help kids in his hometown.
But he had no idea how to start one.
He went to Bohannon, who offered him a schedule from some of the Owls’ camps. After checking with the school’s compliance office, he asked some of his teammates if they could help.
He then started pricing T-shirts for the camp. In one of the serendipitous moments, Jones’ father knew the father of the owner of the T-shirt shop. He wrote Jones a check for $1,000, which covered the costs of the T-shirts.
He was able to put together some gift bags for the campers.
The camp was held at Jones’ alma mater, Union County High School. More than 70 kids attended, with 15 of Jones’ teammates helping. After the bills were paid, Jones was left with approximately $1,400. He said he is going to send some of the money to Johns’ Hopkins University, which is doing research on EDS. He also wants to start two scholarships for students at Union County.
“He would have loved it,” Jones said of his dad. “That’s what makes me the happiest. All those guys made my dreams come true. I hadn’t been dreaming it long, but I wanted it to be the best in his remembrance.”
