January 25, 1991

At 8:35 am on January 25, 1991, Jay Royster entered the world. It's surprising that he didn't come in with a basketball in his hand. Because for most of the 20 years since then, he has seldom been without a basketball in his hand.

Once we were taking a trip to the Bahamas and Jay called the hotel before we left to make sure they had a basketball court. Then he took his own basketball on the airplane to make sure he would have one. When the rest of us were going snorkeling, Jay decided to stay on land and play basketball. When we got back from snorkeling, Jay had made friends on the court with some local Bahamians who invited him to come play pickup games across the island "under the bridge". Where the real games were going on.

And that's another thing about Jay. He has never met a stranger. He likes people and makes friends with everybody - all ages, sizes, races, colors and creeds. We can seldom go anywhere that someone doesn't say, "Oh, your Jay's family." Once we were in a hotel in another part of the state when David struck up an early morning conversation with the hotel manager. As usual talk got around to sports and the manager said, "Wait. You're Jay's father? I watched him play in the High School State playoffs!"

Once when D was in the hospital, an orderly came in and noticed a picture we had brought to the room. He said, "Oh, how do you know Jay Royster?" D explained that he was Jay's grandfather and the orderly explained that he and Jay played basketball together at the Y. From age 6 or 7 on, Jay just about lived at the Y. He was a true gym rat, going to the Y first thing in the morning and staying till they closed. After a few hours, I sometimes needed to be somewhere else and many many sweet people stepped up to be his 'guardian' until he was old enough to be there by himself.

Jay was four years old when he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. It was a blow, but Jay has wrestled that tiger with the same determination that he does everything else. He has had the support of friends, family, teachers; and the guidance of three amazing endocrinologists over the years. Drs Backeljauw, Morris and Buse have shared with Jay their knowledge of diabetes management and their caring personalities. They helped him take control of his health and encouraged him to not let diabetes stand in the way of his dreams. Which was a good fit for a person like Jay who was planning on that anyway. He couldn't have better doctors.

Jay's fire, independence and honesty have always shown through. When he was about 7 years old, we were making a Sunday afternoon trip to visit some folks he barely knew. Jay wanted to be at the Y playing ball and was very unhappy to be putting on 'nice clothes' and going for this visit. I saw his frustration and as we got in the car I said, "Now Jay. I want you to think of at least two nice things you can talk about when we get there. And I want you to be pleasant and happy." He scrunched his face up in pure agony and said, "Mama. You are trying to make me something I'm NOT!" He has always called a spade a spade.

When Jay was in sixth grade, he came home from school and told us that there were some really good athletes in his middle school PE class. I remember him saying, "I think we could put together a really good basketball team." The Shelby Sonics were born and for three years we traveled around the state as they played basketball games after the school season was over. They won several tournament championships and played well in a national tournament in Florida. They went on to play together at Shelby High School where they set a goal to win a state high school championship. After six years of perserverance, determination and teamwork, as seniors at Shelby High, they brought home the 2A High School State Championship. We were proud of Jay and the whole team and are still enjoying watching their personal growth and development.

Once when Jay was about 12 years old he called home from the Y and asked if he could bring some guys home for lunch. "Sure", I said, "Do you need me to come pick ya'll up?" "No they can drive," he said. "Hmmm" I thought. But okay. So I started frying bacon for BLTs. Pretty soon I heard a car drive up and heard Jay's 12 year old voice and then the deeper voices of older boys. In walked 3 20ish year old guys who were over 6 feet tall. Jay said, "Mom this is Josh, Tim and Chris. They play basketball at Gardner-Webb!"

Josh, Tim and Chris had been playing ball with Jay at the Y all morning and boy were they hungry. They finished off two loaves of bread, several pounds of bacon, 5 or 6 homegrown tomatoes and a head or two of lettuce. All the while they were laughing and talking like old friends. They remained friends and we saw them many more times before they graduated and moved on. About a week ago, Jay and GWU were playing basketball in South Carolina and sitting in the stands was Josh. He is now in ministry in South Carolina and had come to see the Bulldogs play. We gave him a big hug and thanked him for being such a good influence on Jay so many years ago. Josh just smiled and shook his head and said, "I love seeing him in a GWU uniform. Wow. It's crazy isn't it?"

Crazy indeed. David called one day last spring and said, "Did you know Jay has been over to GWU to talk about playing basketball?" As far as I knew Jay was set to go to UNC-CH in the fall so needless to say, I was very surprised. David said, "Well I am about to go meet him for lunch. I'll let you know what he says." About an hour later I received a text message that said "Can you spell B-U-L-L-D-O-G?"

Crazy indeed? Not really. Jay is going to live his own life. He is determined, courageous, faithful, fearless and fiercely independent. We couldn't be more proud of him.