Editor's Note: The following is the text of the comments delivered by Frank Fumich at Sunday's Celebration of Life for 5-year-old Jack Rollins at the Bridgeport Conference Center. Jack passed away Tuesday after a two-year-plus battle with cancer. Fumich, as you may remember, raised more than $20,000 for the Rollins family by completing the 352-mile Arctic Ultra Race.

 

I’m deeply honored and humbled to be here today speaking about our hero Jack…and honestly, I feel a little unworthy of this. I’m not a member of the family, or was even a family friend before I learned of Jack’s sickness. I never even had the privilege of meeting Jack in person…something I’ll forever regret. I’m really no different in many of you here. I was introduced to his story about a year ago. A family friend reached out and brought him to my attention and suggested I start following him….and what he’s endured in his fight against Stage 4 Neuroblastoma, and hoped maybe I would want to take up his cause. Well I didn’t have to “follow” Jack and there wasn’t any “maybe” involved with making that decision. You see, all kinds of folks send me stories like this…all of them equally tragic and equally terrible. But I don’t make the choice, but rather one will simply choose me. It has to touch me a certain way and when it does…I just know. And one look at Jack’s infectious smile and those gorgeous blue eyes, and believe me I KNEW! He hit me like an arrow right to my heart. I couldn’t believe that someone so beautiful on the outside, could have something so ugly like cancer on the inside…and I knew I wanted to help in some way. While I followed, and saw his pictures and videos of the interactions with his family and you could feel the love come right through my computer screen. And of all the bonds in life, there is NOTHING that can compare to the love between a mother and her child, and you could certainly see and FEEL that between Jack and his mom Brooke.

 

I don’t pretend to have any idea what it must be like to be a parent of a child going through what Jack endured. I do have the slighting inkling though. I came here today with my sister and her son, my nephew Jason…who is 25 years young and is battling a very dangerous form of Leukemia. So I am privy to some of this life. I’ve seen firsthand what it’s done to him…but he’s 25 not 5. And I’ve been to Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital to visit Jason, and seen plenty of very sick kids…little bald headed children walking while pushing along their IV stands as it drips poisonous Chemo into their battered veins or bruised chest ports, or being wheeled down its hallways because their too sick to walk with their own power. It’s tough enough to see, let alone to LIVE…for months and months on end….or even years like Jack did. And I’m guessing that watching it removed as an uncle, is about 1,000 times easier than having your OWN child go through this horrible battle. Since taking up Jack’s cause, I’ve often tried to close my eyes and imagine what it would be like if one of my little girls had this…but I couldn’t. But even simply TRYING, often brought me to tears. Jack had the biggest heart, but he clearly inherited that gene from his parents.

 

So at some point I reached out to his mom Brooke as a stranger, and explained to her that I wanted to try and help, and just hoped she didn’t think I was some weirdo trolling on the internet!! But because of my effort for Ryan last year, and let’s be honest….the fact that my Gramma and great aunt Ginga are 100 times more famous than me, so fortunately she knew who I was!! During my race up in the Artic for Jack, I carried this towel with his picture, as a constant reminder of why I was there. There were dozens of “deep moments” of clarity out there, but one in particular will always be particularly vivid in my mind. I had his picture safety-pinned to the fabric of my sled so I could turn around and easily see it and keep motivated. I also had a picture of my nephew Jason. At one point a few days into the race, it was -20 degrees and the wind was blowing about 40 mph. I was especially scared, and physically and mentally exhausted. I wanted to quit so badly. I unclipped my waist harness and turned around and saw that 2 of the safety pins had broken off in the wind….and Jack’s picture was just flapping around and taking a beating. I was amazed it hadn’t blown off completely. And then it hit me - that what a perfect analogy that was for Jack himself…just getting hammered and beaten and blown around by the winds of cancer, but he kept hanging on for dear life. I thought to myself…if Jack can hang on facing HIS battle, I can sure as hell keep going myself. So I turned back around, re-clipped my harness, and started moving again…and never looked back.

 

And speaking of holding on for dear life…or life in general - how many of us take life for granted? Following his plight, really put things into perspective didn’t it? Jack reminded me to NEVER take life for granted…that every DAY is precious and you can’t EVER count on the next one coming- so make the most of NOW! I always say “Life is short, do it NOW”! And Jack reaffirmed that. He taught me not to sweat the little things. My so-called daily problems are pitiful compared to what he and his family went through. Because of Jack I’ve become more thankful for everything I have. I appreciate my life, my work, my family much more. I hold my girls longer and squeeze them tighter. I enjoy the sunrises and sunsets more, and everything in between. And I appreciate my blessing more now. Before Jack, I thought I knew what strength was…but Jack has shown me what strength, determination, courage, pure guts and heart REALLY look like. They look like little 5 year olds, with smooth and shiny heads, pale and limping or unable to walk at all, withering away from the ravages of cancer…but STILL REFUSING to give up! THAT my friends is STRENGTH. I think I speak for all of us here when I talk about the life lessons we’ve taken from our time with Jack. It’s amazing that such a little guy, can have such a BIG impact on those who knew him or his story.

 

The money we were able to raise for Jack was wonderful, and I’d like to thank everyone again for their generosity…but I take even more pride in the spreading of his story. I know people realize he had a far reach, but I’m not sure people fully understand HOW far…No, I’m not talking about Clarksburg, or Shinnston, or Morgantown, or even West Virginia…I’ve received messages from no less than a dozen plus countries all across the globe….Australia, New Zealand, Canada, England, South Africa, Italy, Denmark, Germany, Singapore, INDIA!!! Simply incredible! I learned of Jack’s passing at about midnight on Weds morning. Of course I couldn’t sleep so I got up and shared the devastating news on FB. One particular message really struck me, and I’ll share it with you here. At about 2:30 in the morning, my phone dinged, and I saw I had a message from one of the Romanian runners from my Yukon race:   He wrote…and I quote “Frank, I’m on a train now in Romania going to work. I’m crying man. May God take care of Jack.”

How amazing that some grown man, a half a world away in Romania, is sitting on a train going to work and crying over Jack…a little boy he’s never met, from a little town he’s never heard of, let alone visited. THAT’S the kind of reach Jack had…and THAT’S the kind of affect he had on people. And in a world where every time we turn around, or turn on the TV or click on the internet - all we see are shootings, and killings, and drugs, and wars, and hatred, and division. But this little boy was something so PURE…and just had an innate goodness about him, that brought thousands upon thousands of us together. No matter where you were from, or what color your skin was, or what God you believed in, or what political party you belong to, or what sexual orientation you are…we all fell in love with Jack…TOGETHER. We all prayed for him, cheered for him, rallied for him…and FINALLY united WITH him. Jack was a reminder that there IS good still in the world…God, if we could only remember what he’s taught us, the world would be a much better place.

 

Jack gave us hope. We always hoped he would get better, and somewhere along the way he also gave us hope that WE could all be better…PEOPLE. Without hope, there’s nothing. In my races sometimes - in the middle of a pitch dark night when I’m cold and exhausted and miles and miles or even DAYS away from the finish, I’ve experienced moments of hopelessness. It’s a terrible and lonely feeling. But when I see the first tiny light of the morning beginning to show, the HOPE begins to rise again. When I think of Jack, it reminds me of those moments…when those very first colors way out on the horizon start to show their early brilliance, and that’s how I choose to remember Jack…a brilliant colorful light on the horizon.

 

And FIGHT…man, did he have FIGHT!!! I bet cancer had no idea who it was picking on when it took on Jack. It probably thought in only a few months it would be over…odds tell us as much. But Jack had other ideas – He had Legos to play with, and other sick kids to cheer up, friends to make, and nurses to make smile, and super-heros to dress up as. And he wanted a puppy dog, and damn if he didn’t hold on until he got not one, but 2!! He had a busy life and no time for this cancer stuff. He give that damn disease a 12 round championship FIGHT! Jack inspired so many people around the WORLD with his fight…and his bravery was that of legend…or that of a Superhero that we only hear about in make believe stories. But Jack wasn’t make believe…he was a REAL LIFE Superhero. He was JackSTRONG!!

 

In closing, I’m certainly no expert on spirituality….or things about this life or the next life. I can only go by what my faith tells me. You may not have the same faith or have one at all…and that’s ok.  But even if you do, it’s still not easy. Mine has been tested again. It makes me angry. And it seems so unfair. How can God let this happen to ANYONE for that matter, but especially to such a young and innocent and beautiful child - just starting his life. Why does this dreaded disease of Childhood cancer exist at all? Why do some survive and some don’t? And most importantly for us here, now….WHY JACK? So many whys - and so little answers! But we have to at least TRY to make some sense of it or we’ll all go crazy. So it dawned on me - that maybe….just maybe, only the very, very special ones - the ones like Jack - are chosen for this journey. The Jack Rollins Journey. Maybe he was never meant to be on this earth for very long. Maybe Jack had a short but CRITICAL mission here. Maybe he was here to reach as many of us as he did…to show us what never-give-up looks like…what determination looks like…what heart looks like…what love looks like…to show us what true courage in the face of horrendous adversity looks like….and then God attached his wings and called him home to heaven…where he was really meant to be all along. Maybe there was a just shortage of Superheroes in heaven (I think they call them guardian angels up there). And so maybe we should all try and rejoice and just be thankful we had him for as long as we did…and that we’re all better people for it. Even though so many of us didn’t know Jack personally, we’re better people for just having known OF him. Jack will always be my Superhero. Fly high little buddy!!                  

 

Click HERE to read the blog by Jeff Toquinto, which was also part of Sunday's tribute.

 

Editor's Note II: Top photo shows Frank Fumich addressing the hundreds gathered Sunday, while he hugs Jack's mother Brooke after his comments. Photos by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com.