The spirit of the holidays is alive and well with Jeffery Amos and his family thanks to Columbus High School boys basketball coach Sammy Smith.
Amos, a fifth-grader at Joe Cook Elementary School in Columbus who is being treated for bone cancer at St. Jude”s Children”s Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., received several gifts, including a Columbus High jersey and a basketball signed by current and former team members, in the days leading up to Christmas.
“It was a good feeling to know that people care,” said Monchella Miller, Jeffery”s mother. “I didn”t know people could care like that until now. It made me feel happy.”
Amos, 12, learned in November he had cancer after Miller took him to the emergency room. Miller said doctors immediately realized something wasn”t right and sent them to Memphis, where a biopsy discovered a cancerous tumor in Amos” rotator cuff.
Miller had no idea her son was suffering from something so serious, even though her family has a history of cancer. She said her mother died of cancer in 2001, and she also has lost two aunts to cancer. Her father also had cancer but it is in remission.
“I just couldn”t believe it,” Miller said of her reaction to learning her son had cancer. “He didn”t understand it at first, but he knows my mom and his auntie have had cancer. I told him all cancer is not the same.”
Amos is in the initial weeks of a weeks-long chemotherapy cycle. Miller said doctors have told her Jeffery”s cancer is curable, and that he will continue to have one cancer treatment a week until the cancer is defeated.
“He is doing good,” Miller said of Jeffery. “The chemotherapy makes him sick and sometimes he won”t eat (after he has a treatment).”
Miller said Jeffery”s love for football, basketball, and Mississippi State have helped keep his spirits up. He said he was looking forward to a visit from Smith for the longest time and was elated when he finally got a chance to wear his new gifts.
“He was smiling and happy,” Miller said. “He loves basketball and was happy when coach came to see him. He was smiling and everything.”
Smith visited with Amos, Miller, and her other son, Darius Miller, on Dec. 22-24. He took the family dinner several times and also brought Christmas presents. On behalf of Columbus High School and the basketball program, he also gave Amos a Columbus hooded sweatshirt and a T-shirt from the 14th annual Joe Horne Columbus Christmas Classic basketball tournament. He also purchased a basketball goal for Darius.
“It makes you appreciate things more,” Smith said. “He was in good spirits and never seemed down. He smiled all of the time I was there.”
Smith learned of Amos” situation in mid-December from Gayle Fortenberry, an advanced placement coordinator at Columbus High. He said the fact Amos is receiving chemotherapy treatments at St. Jude”s Children”s Research Hospital and is staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Memphis, Tenn., helped make it easier for him to bring Amos and his family into the Columbus High family.
Smith, who is from Marion, Ark., has a sister, Evelyn Perkins, who lives in Memphis and another family member who is a nurse at the hospital where Amos is receiving his treatment.
Smith”s willingness to give to Amos and his family is just part of the generosity he preaches to his players and then helps them practice it. Last month, Smith and the Falcons gave area residents $150 worth of gift cards to the Food Giant supermarket in Columbus.
“We couldn”t ask for anything better than to be able to help,” Smith said. “It brings things back into perspective about who we are and who we need to be thinking about. … It makes you feel like you have done something small for somebody, and I relay that message back to my guys in that you don”t understand how blessed you are.”
Miller thanked Smith and everyone at Columbus for helping to make the holidays a little brighter. She said Smith”s visits and gifts lifted the spirits of Jeffery and Darius and made their Christmas special even though they were away from home.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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