Our Story

Jorja Ann Gorham was born April 8, 2006, the first child of Dave and Jodi and the first grandchild for both of their families. Her brother Davis arrived two years later on August 6, 2008. Since the day Jorja arrived in this world she proved to be a force to be reckoned with. She always knew what she wanted, which was often her mama, and carried the fortitude of her father. She and her brother had endless hours of fun and rivalry. This family of four enjoyed camping, travelling, playing games, watching movies and all types of sports.

When we think of Jorja, we think of someone who loves her family, her friends, soccer, skating and hockey, all kinds of art, (although her favourites were face painting, button and slime making), animals and AWESOMENESS!

In mid January 2018, Jorja was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and given a good prognosis. On January 31st, 2018, Jorja’s life was abruptly ended when she died of undetected medical complications. This left not only her family and friends, but an entire village in agony.

In Jorja’s short time here on earth she touched so many lives and found a special place in people’s hearts that only she could occupy. She built unforgettable bonds with her family, friends at school, sports teams and art community. Jorja was often very active in community events, and could often be found downtown Bowmanville with her face painted, recruiting other children to love art. Jorja’s love extended beyond the barriers of just humankind, and extended to embrace all living things! Her relationship with animals was unique. All animals including reptiles comforted her in ways that no person ever could have, and this love was reciprocated and multiplied when she gave it back.

Through the generous donations of our friends and family, Jorja’s Awesome Grief Village (J.A.G. Village) is a legacy built on the strongest foundation of compassion, love and awesomeness. It is a space for honouring grief and our loved ones, tolerating the intolerable, and for collective healing. We understand that grief touches every part of our lives, and is not a problem to be fixed, but love that needs to be nurtured and honoured. Our relationships do not die when our people die, we have opportunities to continue these relationships into our futures. J.A.G. Village is evidence of this. 

J.A.G. (Jorja’s initials) Village, is short for Jorja’s Awesome Grief Village and also represents Jorja’s love of animals and jaguar face painting.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story will separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

 

More of Jorja

We invite you to see more of Jorja through this short slideshow.