TALLAHASSEE, Fl. (WTXL) - An empty chair sat next to Ashlee Jackson on one of the happiest days of her life, the day she signed a college basketball scholarship.
The empty chair represented her sister Brandy, who passed away in a car accident last September.
"She couldn't run, she couldn't dribble, she couldn't shoot," remembered Ashlee, who laughed when talking about Brandy's lack of athleticism. "She loved the game, I played, she watched type deal. I tried for four years, and all of a sudden my sister passes and everything starts coming true, everything starts happening."
Ashlee's dream of playing in college would have to wait. Before losing her sister, Ashlee dropped out her junior year of high school, was declared ineligible her senior season, then she tore her ACL.
"A lot of these things would make even adults quit, and it didn't," said Godby head girls basketball coach Chelsea Johnson, who's been a mentor to Ashlee. "It's almost like it fuels her just to do better every single day. It's like she's going to tell fate, you're not going to beat me, and that's what she does."
Two years after she graduated from Godby High School, hours of practice, and a try-out with Webber International University later - Ashlee Jackson is a collegiate athlete.
"It humbled me a lot," she laughed. "I used to be this cocky, short something that just thought she was the cutest most best hooper around, and now I'm like, you have to calm down now. It can all be taken from you."
"The word tells us, and Michael Jordan and Lebron has made it famous, get knocked down seven, stand up eight," added Johnson. "That's what she what she does. I get to the point where I think it's stand up infinitely. She's never going to stop!"
The road, not always easy. The reward, worth every stumble along the way.
"Even though it's delayed, it's never denied, but it's up to you to go out and get it," said Johnson. "She's shown over and over again that she's resilient."
"They always say don't question God, and now I know why," agreed Ashlee. "Everything I've been through made me the person I am today."
A person Brandy would be proud to cheer on.
