For a 'great town'
BY SUSAN LaHOUD SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Friday, March 30, 2007 1:23 AM EDT
The Wrentham Police Association receives a donation from the Jaber family Thursday. Sgt. William McGrath at podium with the family members, from left, mother, Mireille Jaber, father Saleh Jaber, and children Jad (almost 2) and Akram, 5, Akram's twin brother, Karim, drowned in 2005 in the family's pool and a foundation established in his name recently held a golf tournament. At far left with photo of karim is Tim Hoegler. (Staff photo by TOM MAGUIRE)
WRENTHAM - Mireille "Mimo" Jaber says her young family is still, and forever will be, haunted by the death of their 3-year-old son Karim who drowned in the family pool on June 5, 2005, a tragedy that has also taken its toll on his twin brother Akram who survived the incident.
Karim died while Jaber was in the hospital having just delivered her third son, Jad.
But in trying to carry on in life, the family has been able to give back to the community they say gave them so much support in their time of need, and in doing so are honoring the memory of their young son.
The family presented the Wrentham Police Association with a check for $7,500 Thursday, representing a part of the proceeds raised during the first Karim Jaber Foundation Golf Tournament held last June.
The funds are intended for water safety programs.
Mimo Jaber said the check represented a repayment to the town's police and fire associations, as well as to members of the community who supported them immediately following that tragic day.
"They helped tremendously," she said, later in the day following the presentation. She said the money from the associations paid for a night nurse for 25 days "which really helped because I really couldn't function."
Housecleaning was also arranged, she said. Then there were the many meals and food shopping certificates which came from the community at-large and from the mothers at the children's pre-school, Barely Beginning. A portion of the tournament's proceeds were donated to the school, which in turn established a "reading loft" in memory of Karim, she said.
Jaber said her husband Saleh's friend Tim Hoegler, who held a picture of Karim at the presentation Thursday, is the one who came up with the idea of honoring their son's memory with a golf tournament.
There were 70 players who turned out for the first-time event at the Norton Country Club. The second golf tournament is scheduled for June 28.
"My husband and I knew right away that we wanted to pay back the town for being so supportive when we were at our lowest point," she said.
Given all of the support they received, "I had no idea how great a town we lived in," Jaber said.
The Jaber family also has a new addition, four-month-old Danny, who she considers "Karim's gift.
She said there are still "definitely some really dark moments" and that Akram continues to have nightmares about the accident.
"But we have three other children we have to take care of, and we just remember him and honor him," in focusing on life ahead, Jaber said.
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