Faith & Hope

The day everything changed

Jayden was 18 when he went to grab fast food on his lunch break. In the parking lot, two men robbed him at gunpoint. Then they shot him twice in the neck.

“The first couple bullets hit my C5 spinal cord and left me paralyzed.”

He stayed conscious the whole time. He sat slumped over and bleeding while his car rolled into a building. An off-duty paramedic broke the window and pulled him out.

His dad, Kevin, had just gotten home on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and was planning to take the rest of the day off. Then his phone rang, and it was Jayden's mom, Esperanza, screaming. When the hospital finally told Kevin his son had been shot in the neck, he knew what that could mean.

“I knew it was over. I don't think I've ever even told anybody that.”

At the hospital, Jayden was covered in tubes and breathing machines. Esperanza collapsed in Kevin's arms. They didn't know yet what paralysis would mean. “It was just him living,” Kevin says. “That was the goal.”

Jayden lived. Doctors said it would be 18 months before he could move anything. Two months later, he moved his left arm. A few months after that, he moved his right.

Life now

Jayden is paralyzed from the neck down and needs care around the clock. Nurses help, but whenever they aren't there, someone in the family has to be. On appointment days, Kevin counts how many times he'll have to lift his son in and out of the car. Some days it's five. Insurance won't cover the treatments the family hopes will help Jayden walk again.

Esperanza carries the most. “She's a superwoman,” Kevin says. She tells everyone she's fine. Then she goes into her room and falls apart, and the next morning she gets up and does it all again.

The day we made art

Jayden hadn't made art since the shooting, and he didn't think of himself as an artist. Jeremy told him that didn't matter. They weren't trying to make a masterpiece. They were just going to make things together. Jeremy called him his “artner,” his partner in art.

They started by painting with their noses. Jayden and Jeremy dipped their noses in paint and drew a smiley face on a canvas. It was silly and messy, and it was the first thing Jayden had made in a long time.

Then Jeremy asked what he wants to leave with the world. With a marker held in his mouth, Jayden wrote two words.

The first was Faith. While Jayden was in the hospital, his dad covered the walls with Bible verses. One stuck with him: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

“Every time I would see that verse, I would just realize I gotta keep pushing. God gives his toughest battles to his toughest soldiers.”

The second was Hope, because Jayden believes he will walk again. So does his dad.

“Miracles do happen. Everything we've asked of God to this point, He's done. Jayden is here. The only thing left is Jayden walking again.”

So Jeremy asked him to picture that day. Jayden saw himself walking through downtown Nashville like a Marvel hero, with the Hulk fighting behind him and a helicopter overhead. Jeremy used AI to bring that picture to life. When Jayden and his family saw him walking again, everyone in the room cried.

Last, Jayden told his life in seasons: his childhood, the years before the shooting, the time since, and everything still ahead. Jeremy turned each season into art, then turned that art into augmented reality. Jayden rolled his wheelchair through his own life story.

By the end of the day he was worn out, and proud of what they'd made.

“We got a lot of artwork done through my nose. The artwork came out good. And I'm feeling good about it.”

His message to anyone going through something hard:

“Just have a lot of faith. Miracles happen every day. It's gonna get hard, but if you have that faith, you can keep pushing.”

Jayden isn't waiting to be rescued. He's building his own way out.

Wear his art

Everything Jayden made that day is now something you can wear.

• Face Hoodie ($60) the smiley face he painted with his nose
• Face Tee ($35) the smiley face he painted with his nose
• Portrait Tee ($35) his portrait, with Hope written across it
• Hope Hoodie ($60) the word he wrote with a marker in his mouth, for the future he believes in
• Faith Tee ($35) the word he wrote with a marker in his mouth, for what keeps him pushing
• The Return Tee ($35) the AI image of Jayden walking through downtown Nashville

Every purchase funds his recovery.

Wear his art. Back his comeback.