FORKS — Jacob Hanson’s big brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jason Hanson, 21, and three other Marines, were killed July 29 in Iraq.
A suicide bomber drove a vehicle loaded with explosives into a building near a checkpoint to their base.
Jacob and Jason’s parents, Carol and Stephen Hanson, didn’t want Jacob to hear about his brother’s death through the small-town grapevine.
His mother went to tell him.
She pulled Jacob outside from his cooking job at the In Place in Forks and, behind the restaurant, quietly told him.
Jacob broke down crying — then punched a trash bin so hard that he broke his hand.
Later, Jacob took to wearing his brother’s dog tags.
“He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t fix it,” Carol said Thursday.
“I think he got lost in the sadness.”
Last Sunday, Jacob took his own life.
He was 19 and had just started a job with a logging company, his mother said.
“I can’t see my life beyond this day, beyond the next detail — I have to take my life in tiny pieces right now,” his mother said.
“He was a kid, and he was my friend.”
Her husband, Stephen, said only that “we’ve been through this before” before passing the telephone to his wife.
Services Saturday
A memorial service for Jacob is scheduled for noon on Saturday at the Performing Arts Center at Forks High School.
A graveside service will immediately follow, and the public is welcome to pay their respects at both.
“It’s too tiny of a town, and too big of hearts live here” to turn anyone away, Carol said.
Jacob liked skateboarding, but he also had a creative side and enjoyed drawing and whipping up gourmet meals.
His favorite to make was portobello mushrooms with spinach.
He was known to be quiet, his mother said, but beneath the still waters lurked a shining sense of humor and a curiosity for the quirky.
He was born in Everett and moved to Forks with his family as a toddler in 1989, earning his General Educational Development credential — GED — in 2005.
He is survived by his parents; brother Samuel Hanson of Homer, Alaska; sister Sarah Hanson of Forks; grandparents Ed and Geraldine Finley of Forks; grandmother Mary Hanson of Rockport, Mass.; and grandfather Ellis Hanson of Fla.
A Death and Memorial Notice for Jacob, placed by his family, can be found by clicking onto “Obituaries” at left.
