Astride a Harley, N.C. man's old joy returns

Elizabeth City, N.C.

Jesse Jasielum waited in his wheelchair Monday and grinned as 25 Harley-Davidson motorcycles pulled into the parking lot of his assisted living center.

"Do I look all right?" he asked Sherry McKenzie, health and wellness director at The Carolina House.

"You look great," she said.

Jasielum shook his head and huffed as if he weren't so sure.

Jasielum, 86, wore jeans and a leather vest covered in pins, including one for each of the eight years he was a member of the Outer Banks Harley Owners Group. His ball cap read "Pearl Harbor survivor."

An avid motorcycle rider until about three years ago, Jasielum spent many hours at the Harley-Davidson store in Elizabeth City.

On Monday, the motorcycle club, The Carolina House, and Community Home Care and Hospice organized a visit to cheer him up.

It was the first in a program called "Your Special Desires," McKenzie said. Community Home Care and Hospice organizes small surprises to cheer up assisted living and nursing home residents.

"It's similar to Make A Wish," she said.

Outdoors, Bill Hale rumbled through the double front doors and into the reception area with his bright red Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic fire fighters edition.

A group of men and women followed him, red-faced from the cold, windy ride, dressed in leather chaps, vests and jackets.

Two of the bike riders lifted Jasielum from his chair to the seat of the Harley.

"You didn't think you'd ever get to sit on another motorcycle did you, Jess?" club member Bill Catlett said.

Jasielum put his hands on the handles. He rested his zip-up dress boots on the foot pedals and looked over the gauges in front of him.

"It feels pretty good," he said.

Jasielum's son Michael introduced his father to motorcycle riding about 30 years ago, Mary Jasielum, Michael's wife, said from her home in Perquimans County. Jasielum and his son often took trips together to the Outer Banks. Occasionally, Jasielum rode up to Ohio to visit his older brother Mannie.

"Why, you can't believe how it makes you feel," Jasielum said of riding. "It's out of this world.

"I f you have to ask, you wouldn't understand."

In the quiet of his room at the assisted living center, Jasielum spoke briefly about Pearl Harbor. A photograph of him and his brothers, dressed in Navy whites, hung on the wall. The photo was taken at Pearl Harbor about six months before Dec. 7, 1941. All four survived the attack.

"All you could hear was bombs going off," he said. "I did like everybody else. It was survival of the fittest. The smoke and fumes. Those poor guys."

Jasielum paused for a while trying to bring back memories.

"This is hard," he said. "I'm pretty old here."

Mannie, the only other brother still living, filled in some of the details from his home in Ohio. Jesse, the youngest, Frank, Joe and Mannie were stationed on Ford Island near Pearl Harbor when the attack began. Jesse Jasielum was an aviation machinist second class at the time, said Mary Jasielum after looking at his military records.

When the bombing began, Jesse got separated from the others for about a day, Mannie said. Mannie was sent to fire anti-aircraft guns in subsequent attacks, he said.

"There was a lot of firepower going up," he said. "I don't know how a mosquito could have survived that."

It was more than day later when they were reunited and able to get their first meal since the attack, half an apple and a slice of bread.

"It was a miracle we survived," he said.

Later, the brothers were separated for different assignments. Jesse Jasielum stayed in the Navy until 1946, Mary Jasielum said.

Afterward he joined the Coast Guard before retiring in 1961. He worked for an aircraft manufacturing company until he retired again at age 55, she said.

It was about that time that he got into riding motorcycles with his son.

"They are pretty, aren't they," Jasielum said of the bikes Monday. "They're beautiful."

Jeff Hampton, (252) 338-0159, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com