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Ms. Jessica Smith has a five year old daughter named Linzy. Little Linzy suffers from dwarfism and as a result has a rare bone marrow disease and several other related ailments. Linzy’s prognosis is not good and she is scheduled to spend the Christmas holiday in treatment.
Linzy’s mom wanted her to have Christmas early so they went about decorating their yard for the child to enjoy. In the early morning hours of November 21st 2012, a suspect, whom we are sure had no idea what they were doing, stole the Christmas decorations from the front of the home.
Upon hearing the “Grinch” had struck the Smith home, Officers Jacob (Jake) Lewis and Dave Head from our Maryvale Precinct wanted to know what he could do for the family. Now Officer Lewis is married and has a family of his own with a child on the way. No matter, the officer realized the financial burden Linzy’s illness must have on the family and so he took it upon himself to purchase $80.00 in groceries for the family in hopes that this might free up some money to re-decorate the yard for the baby. The officers also contacted Angels on Patrol and Ms. Leah Heathcoat who gladly stepped in and helped with new decorations for inside and outside the home.
I spoke with Ms. Smith and her appreciation of Officer Lewis is, in the least, immense. I asked Jake about the “donation” and he told me “yeah, when we were in the academy and they asked me why I wanted be a police officer I jumped on the “fast cars and sirens” bandwagon; but, when I said I wanted to help people, I meant it”.
These are the things we do as a community.
