By Steve Dallape

Imagine you are awakened from a sound sleep before dawn by a shout of “Fire!” How would you react? What would you do? Fortunately, for most of us, this is a thought experiment only. But for 17-year-old senior JaBron Bedward and his family, the scenario played out in real life just one year ago. And his reaction to that loss says a lot about this young man’s character.

JaBron grew up in Pulaski, moving to Mounds around the age of ten. But it was while living in Ullin last year that the fire occurred. JaBron, normally a sound sleeper, was jolted awake at 4:00 AM by his younger brother shouting, “It’s a fire!” The family (JaBron, his brother and mother), ran outside in the March early-morning cold and alerted the neighbors, whose home was also ablaze. But JaBron’s mother, a case worker for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, went back inside to retrieve her work laptop. She has been inside for what seemed to JaBron to be a very long time, when he decided to go back inside to try and bring his mother out. Just as he settled on that course of action, the fire suddenly blazed up violently, and JaBron knew he had to act fast. He made a beeline around the back of the house, where his mother’s room was located. Fortunately, just as he reached her window, she began to climb out. “I thought I had lost her,” JaBron recalls.

A tragic event like this would be a lot for anyone to handle, but young JaBron remained level-headed and stoic in the aftermath. “I didn’t really care about the stuff, I was just glad my little brother and everybody was okay.” This desire to keep others from suffering, to make sure everyone is okay, is a big piece of the complex young man that is JaBron. He says that, if he could, he would want to cure all diseases. “Somebody could have cancer, and you wouldn’t even know it…, somebody could be in some type of pain, and you just don’t know.” This sensitivity to others’ hidden troubles shows a maturity that not every 17-year-old possesses.

And as catastrophic as losing his home to a fire was, it may have planted the seed for his career ambitions in the future. JaBron aims to make a career for himself in real estate and as a general contractor, buying and flipping houses – hard work, for sure. But JaBron has made a habit of working hard to get to where he wants to be, spending his free time working at McDonald’s or practicing basketball. And that dedication to the task at hand, whether it be flipping burgers or flipping houses, is sure to take JaBron far.