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Courtesy of Kathleen Doss
Hannah Doss holds a Choose Good sticker, something she hopes will help spread Jerome Lewis's positive message.
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Photo courtesy of Kathleen Doss
Kathleen Doss and her daughter Hannah Doss created "Choose Good" stickers in memory of Jerome Lewis, the beloved head custodian at Crestline Elementary School who died in June.
When Hannah Doss was a student at Crestline Elementary School, the school’s beloved head custodian Jerome Lewis gave her some advice – Choose Good.
“He just had a profound effect on her, and I know he did on a lot of people,” said Kathleen Doss, Hannah’s mother. “Because of that relationship we would go visit him at school from time to time and that was one of the things he repeated over and over again, [that] you face hard decisions and you come across a lot of things, and how important it is to choose the good, choose good.”
Hannah is now 15 years old and when Lewis died in June following a more than two-year battle with cancer, she was on the road with her family. Because she was unable to attend Lewis’s service, Hannah spoke with her mom about honoring Lewis another way — through stickers that help spread the message he shared with her and other students.
“I know I am just one of the many people whose lives Jerome touched,” Hannah said. “I was always so grateful for his wisdom and advice and hoped to share it with others.”
Hannah and her mother created stickers that are now available throughout Mountain Brook with Lewis’s message. The blue and white stickers depict a small cross and the words “Choose Good – Jerome,” and they can be found at The Pants Store, Snoozy’s, Smith’s Variety, Mountain Brook Sporting Goods and Crestline Elementary School.
“With Hannah, his message to her was so much about growing up … just always in your heart, just think about it and there’s always a choice, and just encouraging her,” Doss said. “For teenagers, it’s hard, so I think it’s definitely something that’s resonated with her a lot over the years.”
The stickers are free, but donations will also be accepted for the stickers. All money raised will go toward St. Jude’s, a cause Doss said was close to Lewis’s heart.
“That was something, if he ever had an opportunity to give, he would give there,” Doss said.
Doss said she and her daughter hope people who are interested in the message and who cared about Lewis will pick up the stickers and benefit from his words.
“That message is so important, and I just think it can apply to so many areas of life,” Doss said. “I just think he was so good, and he took a terrible terminal illness and chose to be positive and full of live and giving in his spirit, always.”
