Just prior to the death of my sixteen-year-old daughter Jacqueline to leukemia in 1990, my brother, Tom Mello, had been busy raising money to help finance a trip I would have needed to make to accompany Jackie while she underwent a life-saving bone marrow transplant at the University of Kentucky. Unfortunately, Jackie became too ill to travel and the procedure was cancelled. Knowing she would never be able to use the money personally, she made a wish list of items the children on “7 North” of the Floating Hospital for Children so desperately needed and asked that we see to it that this wish was fulfilled. Sadly, Jackie passed two days later.
It was then we established The Friends of Jackie Memorial Fund, which distributes scholarships, charitable contributions, and gifts for local families in need of assistance, as well as New England Medical Center’s Floating Hospital for Children in Boston, MA.
If you knew Jackie, would you kindly share a memory of her with us?
thesamesmile 
I have so many memories! Jackie and I connected immediately when we met. We became best friends immediately. Before there was texting, we passed notes in school. Jackie and I would pass each other in the hallway in the afternoon between periods and we always had a note to pass to each other. The hard part was if it had something juicy in it we would have to wait until after school to talk. Jackie’s notes were always entertaining because she was a hoot! Her spelling was also atrocious and she joked about that all the time. I always looked forward to those notes. I still have them tucked away. Every last one of them. I read them a couple of times a year and it feels like just yesterday and that she is still right there with me. Love her.
Perhaps someday, you will be ready to share some of those notes with me. Several years ago, Christy visited and brought with her a shoe box filled with notes from Jackie. Beth, Kris and I sat on the floor with her, drinking wine and reading the notes from that shoe box…laughing and crying…it was a wonderful night! Know how much Jackie loved you…I love you, too, Beth-Ann!
I remember the last finals competition Jackie was able to attend. Although she was not able to perform because of her illness, she marched with us on & off the field! I am so lucky, and so proud to have known her. We all miss her every day!
Janel, I cannot begin to tell you what being there that evening with her band family meant to her. It gave her the hope of getting well and returning to school and band.