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8-Year-Old Touched His World

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By NICOLA M. WHITE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 5, 2008

ZEPHYRHILLS - He was a boisterous, chubby-cheeked third-grader who loved NASCAR, Spider-Man and horsing around with friends.

The 8-year-old's mile-a-minute sentences belied how sick he was.

Jacob Bolton

Jacob Bolton, who was diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor last February, died Monday morning, after inspiring countless people.

"He touched everybody who knew him before his illness and during his illness," said Stacey Wideman, whose son, Zane, 9, was Jacob's best pal and classmate at West Zephyrhills Elementary School.

In February, Jacob started bumping into things and tripping in his soccer cleats. The doctor told his mother, Celine Pullin, that Jacob's blurry vision and loss of balance weren't signs he needed glasses - he had terminal cancer.

Almost immediately, residents of Zephyrhills started organizing fundraisers to help pay for Jacob's medical expenses.

"I am proud more than ever to say I am from the small town of Zephyrhills," Pullin wrote in a letter in June to The Pasco Tribune. "The people of this community have helped us in more ways than we could have imagined."

Jacob endured rounds of radiation but kept his spirits up. In mid-January, though, a few days before he went to see a monster truck rally at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, the blurry vision came back. His doctors let him go to the show, to which All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg donated box seats. Jacob had a blast, family friend LaDonna McClellan said.

That was Jan. 19, and Jacob went back into the hospital that night. Doctors said there was nothing they could do and recommended hospice care.

He spent his last weeks at home, surrounded by friends, family and the NASCAR memorabilia in his cherry-red bedroom. It got hard for him to speak. When his mother would ask him where he hurt, he said "all over." Those were his last words, McClellan said.

By Sunday, he could only squeeze his mom's hand and blink to answer questions. He went by ambulance to Pasco-Hernando Hospice in Dade City that afternoon.

He died Monday at 6:30 a.m., with his mother, his father, Dustin Pandy, his stepfather, Danny Pullin, and his grandmother at his side.

Funeral arrangements are being made this week. Grief counselors have been sent to West Zephyrhills Elementary School.

Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or nwhite1@tampatrib.com.

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