Jessica loved shopping, was scared of spiders

By Jeff Hage (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Jessica Weishair was a lot of things to a lot of people.

She was a daughter to Kim and Stacy Weishair, a sister to Brooke and Jordan, niece and godmother to Mariah and a close friend to endless others.

To Marlys Ebersviller, Jessica’s school counselor the past four years, the 16-year-old girl was simply “Little Jessica.”

“She was just my little Jessica. All I can think about is losing my little Jessica,” Ebersviller said Tuesday before 1,025 people gathered to pay their respects to the Weishair family during a community prayer service at Pelican Rapids High School.

Jessica died Saturday from injuries sustained in the crash of a bus carrying Pelican Rapids band students home from a performance in Chicago. The crash occurred about 6 a.m. Saturday morning on I-94 at Albertville.

Ebersviller knew Jessica not only through their school connections, but as her Sunday School teacher at Trinity Lutheran Church, as well.

“In all the time I have known Jessica, I have never, ever seen her without a smile,” Ebersviller said this week.

“She was always happy. She definitely falls into the ‘Great Kid’ category,” she said.

Jessica had a deep commitment to family.

“She was a product of her parents,” said Patti Boen, a close family friend. “All the things you saw in Jessica came from her family.”

Kim Weishair told Ebersviller that Jessica was her parents’ little angel. On Saturday, Jessica sprouted her wings, he told Ebersviller.

Jessica’s father told Ebersviller that if you wanted to buy a daughter like Jessica, you just wouldn’t be able to. “You could never afford her — that’s how good she was,” he said.

“She was a sweet kid. Gentle, funny, and happy,” Boen said. “You could talk to everyone here and none could say a negative word about her.”

Jessica loved to hang out at home with her brother and sister, Boen said.

“Whatever she did, she did it so her family could be together. The kids were such good friends and enjoyed being together,” Boen said. “In that house they were raised to love each other.”

Jessica played flute in the band, and was a member of the school volleyball team. At school she was involved in choir, dance and softball, too.

She obtained her drivers license two weeks ago today on her birthday and was excited about her job at the new Cenex store in downtown Pelican Rapids.

An A student, Jessica was one to lend a helping hand to her fellow classmates.

"She was so sweet. She helped me in school. She helped me in math — she actually helped me pass math last year,” said Pelican Rapids sophomore Devin Kepeius.

In a self-portrait poem read Monday night by Ebersviller that Jessica wrote in 10th grade, Jessica revealed a lot more about herself.

In that poem Jessica described herself as kind, friendly, and nice. She enjoyed laughing with friends on the last day of school, shopping at the mall and experiencing the excitement of a rollercoaster. She described herself as filled with joy, happiness, and light. She would get nervous taking a test and was scared to be alone in the dark. She feared bees, spiders, and the death of a loved one.

She was Jessica, who loved her family and lived in a brown house in the country.