SIAP- Mother asking for help finding lost jersey that belonged to her son

quote:

---

The jersey belonged to Jennifer's son Bobby Harper, Jr. who died in an automobile accident in January. Jennifer and her family have taken the jersey to every game they’ve attended since then. They drape it over Bobby’s former seat. It’s a way to keep Bobby in their thoughts. Now it’s lost.

---

quote:

---

It’s an extra-large souvenir Saints jersey, black with a gold collar and No. 9 on the back, just like many, many others. Jennifer Harper, a Saints fan from Mobile, said she recalls packing it away before she left the Mercedes-Benz Superdome’s Section 121, Row 13 after Sunday’s game, which ended with a lip-biting loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

But by the time she reached the parking garage it was gone.

---

quote:

---

Bobby and his brother Michael, 27, regularly attended Saints home games with their mom and dad, Jennifer said. He was one of those focused fans who could explain the implications of a penalty before the officials announced it.

Bobby was at his parents’ house the evening before he died. The family had eaten king cake. The next morning, Bobby, who was an emergency room nurse, received a call from a friend whose car had broken down.

He volunteered to give her a ride home. As he sped to his friend’s aid, his Toyota Avalon inexplicably veered off of highway I-10, rolled and crashed into a tree.

Jennifer, a retired special education teacher, and her husband, Bobby Sr., an insurance agent, have been Saints season ticket holders for 35 years.

---

quote:

---

Jennifer said that, despite the family’s grief, she and her husband encouraged Michael, a chef at Couvant restaurant in New Orleans, to attend the Saints’ NFC championship game two days later — which ended with the notorious “no call.”

Attending the important game in defiance of their grief seemed like the sort of gesture Bobby would have appreciated, Jennifer said. She recalls telling Michael and his girlfriend Chelsea Hale: “You need to go, you need to go.”

"Something just told me to come down here to New Orleans and and go to the game," Michael said. "It's like he wanted it."

Michael and Chelsea took one of Bobby’s Saints jerseys with them to the game, displaying it on his seat like a flag, and a family custom was born.

"That jersey makes you feel like he's still there in the Dome with you every Sunday," Michael said.

---