VILLAGE OF MINOA – Pulling positivity from grief, a bench dedication ceremony in Minoa’s Lewis Park this month memorialized a local infant remembered for the light and love he shared in his short life.
The yellow “buddy bench” faces the park’s swing set because that always-smiling young boy, Sonny Jude, loved to go on the swings anywhere he went, said his mother, East Syracuse resident Samantha Becotte. Now, it’s as if he’s there watching over everybody who stops by the playground, sitting right beside the parents keeping an eye on their frolicking children.
At the Aug. 4 ribbon cutting, Becotte was joined by her parents, her six-year-old daughter Lyla, plenty of friends with young kids, and other members of her family—all of whom formed a supportive net for her to fall back on when her son passed away on Oct. 9, 2021 at the age of only 13 months.
It was in March 2021 that Sonny Jude suddenly stopped breathing one night, only to be resuscitated by his babysitter, Mady Alcock, who had the quick thinking to administer CPR. After the hospital he went to ran some tests, it was confirmed that the young boy had a genetic heart rhythm disorder known as long QT syndrome.
When he died later that same year, Becotte knew she wanted to keep his legacy going somehow, and so she started The Sonny Jude Foundation in 2022 to educate the general public about heart arrhythmia syndromes and keep his name alive while helping other families through their own difficult times.
With donations secured through the foundation, Becotte had not only the Lewis Park bench installed as a lasting tribute, but another one similarly colored yellow like the sun that was put in at the Immaculate Conception School in Fayetteville on what would have been Sonny Jude’s first day of pre-K.
Becotte has also made a point of assembling gift boxes that are handed off to Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital and given to parents who’ve lost children. During the period of sorrow that follows, those boxes containing journals, hand prints, commemorative candle holders, miniature treasure chests for locks of hair, and other personalized items go on to become a source of comfort.
“When I donate the boxes, I create them with a lot of love and intention for the parents who receive them, because I know that they’re facing the same devastating journey that I was on,” Becotte said. “I think it’s really important just to have someone who knows what they’re going through and what they went through so they know that they’re not alone.”
Throughout the year, The Sonny Jude Foundation additionally sponsors CPR certifications so more people can be equipped with that skill, which Becotte credits with giving her another half a year with her son.
To coincide with American Heart Month and to give a nod to something Sonny Jude loved to eat in the morning, Becotte has also turned the pancake breakfast fundraisers she began hosting for the foundation into an annual occurrence every February.
Becotte said that whether it’s those pancake breakfasts, the CPR certification classes, or the placement of memorial benches, she can’t thank the community members she’s come across enough for all their support, including Mayor Bill Brazill and other Village of Minoa officials in the case of the newest Lewis Park bench, which sticks out from the blue and red benches near it.
Just as Brazill was assured in saying there’s a “small little angel” overlooking the South Main Street park now, Becotte holds onto the belief that the bench is an everlasting symbol of Sonny Jude that also represents the loving encouragement she’s continually felt from those around her.
