Life after death
Former Pacific mother, employee and parent moves on after a personal battle with illness and the death of a sister and son
Alana Kansaku-Sarmiento
Issue date: 5/14/09 Section: Student Life
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Disappearing to the kitchen, Ross came back with a plate of fresh oatmeal cookies. Through simple conversation, one would never assume that Ross, 51, has ever suffered much throughout life.
A Pacific University alum and ex-employee, Ross had two sons attend Pacific in the early 90s. Her boys, Aaron and Eric, were raised in Hillsboro, where the family continued to reside during their sons college years.
Eric, a member of Pacific's football team in 1991, was injured during a home game in the fall of his senior year.
After spending two years in a coma, he died on March 15, 1993, two days before his parent's 25th wedding anniversary.
"Our family is kind of strange; we sort of laugh our way through life," said Ross. "Eric was so full of joy he could not stand for anyone to be down. We knew that if he were to look down and see us having sad lives, it would break his heart, so we decided we needed to carry on and have a happy life for Eric."
Ross's younger son, Aaron, had just begun attending Pitzer College in California when Eric was injured. After completing his freshman year, Aaron made the move back home, transferring to Pacific University in the fall of 1992.
"They were the best of friends, we were so fortunate," said Ross. "They were opposite as night and day, but they were still supportive of each other, not competitive. We didn't know what sibling rivalry was in our house."
Throughout high school and college, their friendship only strengthened over time.
"When he started playing soccer, I started playing soccer; when he started wrestling, I started wrestling and when he switched from soccer to football, I started playing football," said Aaron.
Being raised in Hillsboro for most of his life, Eric decided to go to Pacific after graduating from Hillsboro High School. There, he received tuition remission (almost attending for free) because Pam worked in the business office. Aaron, two years younger, decided to head south to Califormia instead.
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