Myrtle Beach-area community gathers to honor memory of 4-year-old Jayden
Jessica Fordbush’s 4-year-old son, Cavin, held two teddy bears Saturday night, one each for Jordan and Kelsey Morrison — the siblings of 4-year-old Jayden Morrison, who drowned in a retention pond last week in the Hidden Lakes subdivision.
“My heart breaks for them,” Fordbush said of the Morrison family coping with their child’s sudden death. “I have a 4-year-old and I couldn’t imagine.”
More than 120 community members showed up at a vigil Saturday to remember Jayden Morrison, who was visiting for the holidays with family from White Plains, N.Y. Jayden went missing Wednesday night, triggering a swarm of community members to search during Christmas Day and Friday. He was found in a retention pond across the street from the home where he and his family were staying.
Carolyn Sumpter, Jayden’s grandmother who owns the Hidden Lakes house, said her family will head back to New York for funeral services.
“We’ll be back, and every time we come back we’ll bring flowers,” Sumpter said. “I’m going to write [Hidden Lakes] to see if we can change the name to Jayden’s pond or Jayden’s lake.”
Sumpter said her daughter Tabatha Morrison at first said she could not see herself visiting the Hidden Lakes home in the future.
“At first she said, ‘I can’t come down here anymore, I can’t come down here anymore. Sell the house,’ ” Sumpter said to the crowd of people gathered. “I said, ‘No way, this house is paid for.’ Besides, where would we find another community like you? Never, never.”
Andre Morrison, Jayden’s father, told those at the vigil that if his son was at the gathering, he would have been the “life of the party. The stopper of the party. The interrupter of the party, but an honest soul.”
Andre Morrison said he has been working to come to terms with the loss of their son.
“God did his deed,” Andre Morrison said. “God got my prince up in Heaven. He’s in better hands right now and I can feel him.
“To me that is Lake Jayden in my book.”
Fordbush said explaining to her son Cavin what happened to Jayden has been tough.
“We told him that there was a little boy who walked out the front door, which is something Cavin likes to do and that’s why I’m so shaken about it,” Fordbush said. “He does that all the time and it scares me because that’s all it takes is just a minute.”
“He knows that he’s gone and that he’s in heaven.”
This story was originally published December 27, 2014 at 7:53 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach-area community gathers to honor memory of 4-year-old Jayden."