The Franklin News-Post
P. O. Box 250
310 Main Street, SW
Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
540-483-5113
Fax: 540-483-8013
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Friday, November 20, 2009
By JOEL TURNER - Staff Writer
FERRUMﾠ-- Death is felt deeply at a small college such as Ferrum, which has only 1,200 students.
This week's shooting and killing of Jessica Goode affected many of the students, professors and other staff members at Ferrum College in a personal way.
Unlike large colleges and universities with 30,000 to 40,000 students, most students at Ferrum know each other -- if not by name, at least by face.
When a student dies suddenly or is killed at a small college, it can feel almost like a death in the family.
The news that Goode, a senior from Winchester, was shot and killed in a hunting incident Tuesday swept across the Ferrum campus rapidly Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
Hundreds of students and staff filled Vaughn Chapel on Wednesday to grieve Goode's death and celebrate her life.
Dozens of students had to stand along the back wall in the chapel for the memorial service because all seats were taken.
Many students hugged each other and talked about Goode. Some were crying.
"We are together in grief. We have to come together to share and celebrate Jessica's life," said the Rev. C. Wesley Astin Jr., dean of the chapel and religious life at Ferrum.
Alluding to 23-year-old Goode's young age, Astin said, "expectations have vanished, and the mystery of death has stricken us."
Dr. Jennifer Braaten, Ferrum's president, asked the students and staff to remember this "beautiful woman and student."
The Ferrum community is grieving over Goode's death, she said.
"We are trying to make sense out of what seems so senseless," Braaten said.
Braaten said she has talked with Goode's parents and minister.
"They say she loved Ferrum College and her friends. She appreciated all they had done for her," Braaten said.
At the memorial service, students and professors remembered Goode, describing her as energetic, spontaneous, strong-willed, courageous and a lover of nature and the outdoors.
"I can't believe she is not here with us. But she is here with us in spirit," said one student.
Several students and professors said they never will forget Goode and her passion for life.
"She just didn't do things at 100 percent. She did them at 1,000 percent," said one speaker at the memorial service.
Goode, an environmental science major, and two other Ferrum students were searching for specimens for a science class when she was struck by a rifle bullet in the chest.
Her friends said she loved the outdoors where she died. They said she loved camping, boating and kayaking.
Goode was only two weeks away from graduating in December.
Sam Catron, president of the Student Government Association, said Goode never worried about what other people thought of her.
At the memorial service, Catron read lyrics from the song "Pork and Beans" by the band Weezer. He said the lyrics described Goode's independent, defiant and upbeat personality:
"Excuse my manners if I make a scene; I ain't gonna wear the clothes that you like; I'm fine and dandy with the me inside; one look in the mirror and I'm tickled pink; I don't give a hoot what you think."
Students said Goode had a bubbly personality. She was always doing and saying something funny, they said. She wanted everyone else to have fun, too.
The memorial service for Goode ended with a period of silence and the singing of the Lord's Prayer.
Then, in the form of a benediction, Astin read Goode's last posting on her Facebook page. It said, "Study hard, work out hard, play hard, for the rest of time." |
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