Close Friend Passed Away

[Murgatroy]

I thought this might be something that could be appreciated here.

 

 

 

I have a forum dedicated to a make and model of automobile that I have been running for just shy of ten years. What and where isn't important. The who and how is.

 

Through this forum for an obscure and discontinued nameplate I have made a close group of friends. Friends from all over the world. It is amazing how friends from a website can become friends through life.

 

I have been hosting a small event for the last dozen years at Deal's Gap. We all get together, spends some time on the roads, get some cabins at Fontana and have a great weekend. Through this event and the activity on forum many of the folks I have met I have come to call friends, some, family.

 

Officer Bruce Daniel Jacob of the Jackson Mississippi Police Dept. was one I considered family.

 

I have known Bruce for several years through my forum. He became staff, eventually getting to be an administrator of the site within the last year. Bruce was an honest, giving man, and a damn fine mechanic.

 

Several years ago I blew the engine in my car. Bruce happened to have a replacement engine sitting in his shop. It didn't take much and I wound up loading my car onto a trailer and driving from Knoxville, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi to spend the week with he and his wife and swap the engine in my car.  That was the kind of man Bruce was. If you needed it and he had it, it was yours. That was why he became a police officer. He wanted to make a difference in the world. Even if it was one person.

 

Bruce made a difference to a lot of people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday afternoon Bruce was responding to a call of debris in the lanes of I-55 through Jackson. As Bruce was putting the barbecue grill someone had dropped into the trunk of his cruiser, he was struck and killed by a car.

 

He was 35 years old.

 

I just arrived home from attending his private family and friends only service on Tuesday. It was a small private ceremony, sans media attention or the fanfare of the pubic service that will be held Friday for a fallen hero. I was very emotionally moved to have been invited. 

 

Bruce was a dedicated public servant, a dedicated mechanic and a dedicated husband. The memorial reflected on all of these. However the moment that moved me the most was one photograph. It was of myself and Bruce taken those years ago in his shop, working on my car.

 

It was then that I realized that not only had I considered Officer Bruce Jacob family, but he had considered me the same.

 

Myself and a dozen other members of our internet family based on a forum dedicated to a nearly forgotten car came from all over the country to pay our respects to a man who was family in a way that only this modern technological age can define.

 

 

 

 

I would like to end this with a plea to all that see anyone stopped on the side of the road, please, move over as much as you can. To our officers on the site, thank you for the risks you take on a daily basis to protect and serve.

 

To any who have met someone on the internet and come to call them a friend, I think you can understand this.

 

I have been on this site only a few years, but I have met several of you in person, and consider you friends. I know that some of you are very close. I think you would understand this.

 

I will now put the picture that means the world to me.

 

Rest in Peace Officer Bruce Daniel Jacob.

 

Edited July 25, 2013 by Murgatroy

[rugerla1]

Very sorry for your loss and for his family and other friends as well.

[Monkeyman2500]

Sorry for your loss. I bet he was a great man. I simply do not understand what many people are thinking when they drive.

[Peace]

I am sorry for your loss. .. so sorry.

[pops572]

May he rest in peace, and you and the rest of his family find comfort in the memories of the time you spent with him.

[billyscott]

It's sad when someone this young looses his life.

Rest in Peace Officer

[MarkInNashville]

It is hard on those of us left behind... it seems like this was a really good guy and makes it very, very hard because his passing leaves a void in many peoples lives. In the end that is really the only honor anyone will recive, to be missed. I am sorry for you and his family's loss.

[hipower]

To quote Billy Joel..."Only the Good die Young"

Prayers for family and friends.

[daddyo]

Sincere condolences, Murgatroy. Very sorry to hear.

[Guest TankerHC]

Very sorry to hear that. I knew Jacob very casually, my next door neighbors son was JPD and Jacob has been to their house. Seen him out there occasionally.

 

I-55 and Northside drive has to be the second most dangerous driving area in Jackson, second only to the Stack. The people going through there drive like maniacs. You have people exiting the poorly designed ramps onto Northside, on to the side roads and flying up and down 55.

 

When I come up on a patrol car, I slow way down and give those officers a wide berth, just because something like this could happen. Officers and construction workers.

 

Sorry for the loss of your friend, stuff like this would not happen if people would just slow down and pay attention.

 

Cops should carry those same signs that COnstruction workers use "We have children at home too...slow down"

Edited July 25, 2013 by TankerHC

[JAB]

It sounds like your friend was the kind of man and police officer that we could use more of.  I am sorry to hear of his loss.

[Dustbuster]

Deepest condolences,
He sounds like someone I would have loved to work and cut up with.horrible tragedy. Glad u could memorialize him with us on this forum.
Respectfully and truly,


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

[Erik88]

I'm really sorry. I get really pissed when I see people fail to move over for emergency vehicles. It sounds like the world lost a great person.