Whoever said a mother’s love is the most powerful feeling has never known a mother’s loss.
“It’s hell,” Jessica Pyke said. “It is complete hell.”
The pictures on the wall behind Pyke in her Zoom interview are all that’s left.
“They’re on my bedroom wall so that’s the first thing that I see when I wake up in the morning,” she said.
Her 11-year-old son, Eli. Her firstborn. Her first of four children.
“Blond hair and blue eyes, you couldn’t miss those,” Pyke said.
He was her jokester, her prankster and her reason for worry when he would do flips on the trampoline.
Now, he’s her memory.
“They say it gets easier,” she said. “No it don’t [sic]. It gets harder. It just gets harder and harder.”
Harder with each day.
For her, day one was March 6 about 1:15 a.m. with a knock at the door by police. Eli was staying the night with a friend.
According to the police report, a 14-year-old got one of the “cool guns” out of the cabinet to show it off.
The teen told police he had the gun and was showing off the laser and light when he dropped it and when he tried to pick it up one-handed, he accidentally grabbed the trigger and it went off, hitting Eli in the chest.
RELATED: 14-year-old charged with reckless homicide in shooting death of 11-year-old Nelsonville boy
“We’re tore up,” Pyke said. “We want closure, and the closure is taking extremely, extremely long.”
Two months later, Pyke wants answers.
According to the report, the teen told police the gun cabinet appeared to be locked, but he believes his dad forgot to change the combination on the lock because it did not fully lock and he was able to pull it open. The teen’s father told police he didn’t know how the boys got into the safe because he always kept it locked.
Athens County Prosecuting Attorney Keller Blackburn confirmed to 10TV as of Friday morning the 14-year-old has been charged with reckless homicide and is expected to be in court Tuesday, May 18.
Blackburn says the case is still open and more charges are possible for others involved.
A memorial celebration took place on Friday, May 7, in honor of what would have been Eli’s twelfth birthday. Friends and family met to light candles and release balloons.
“Teach your kids [and] let them know that it’s not a toy,” Pyke said. “It is not a toy.”
Pyke says she was raised around guns but now will never allow one in her house.
“It’s not worth it,” she said. “It’s not worth going through all the heartbreak and pain that I’m having to go through.”
What she’s going through. What her family is going through. What her 4-year-old daughter Sophia, Eli’s sister, is going through.
“Who’s that up there,” Pyke asked Sophia while holding her and looking up at pictures of Eli.
“Bubba,” Sophia said.
“Yeah, we miss him, huh?” Pyke said.
“Bubba,” Sophia said as she started crying.
“Don’t baby,” Pyke said holding back tears and comforting her daughter. “Don’t cry. Don’t cry.”
Proving a mother’s love is no match for a mother’s loss.