GILROY
– Somewhere, Jimbo is smiling.
Sure, Jim Osterhoff, the local homeless man known affectionately
as
”
Jimbo,
”
had his life violently stolen from him last month as he walked
across First Street and was run over by an anonymous driver of a
large automobile. But Friday
– even in death – he was able to give a local boy the present of
a lifetime.
GILROY – Somewhere, Jimbo is smiling.
Sure, Jim Osterhoff, the local homeless man known affectionately as “Jimbo,” had his life violently stolen from him last month as he walked across First Street and was run over by an anonymous driver of a large automobile. But Friday – even in death – he was able to give a local boy the present of a lifetime.
“I want to thank Jimbo – we are very grateful,” said Desiree Holguin, the mother of Gilroy 7-year-old Aaron Jackson, who on Friday was given an electric train set Jimbo had purchased at a local hobby shop shortly before his death.
“Aaron is so excited,” said Holguin, who was able to meet and thank Jimbo’s long-lost sister, Faith Campbell, during the exchange at All Aboard Junction. “Trains are his life, and this is his first electric set. He will carry this with him for a long time – his love for trains.”
It is that love of locomotives that twisted the tracks of these two Gilroyans born almost 50 years apart: Jimbo, a 56-year-old transient known as a benevolent loner, and Aaron, a 7-year-old whose young life has been haunted by medical problems and procedures, including two open-heart surgeries and a soon-to-be third.
But on Friday, none of that mattered – the only thing important was the sound of that iron horse effortlessly gliding down the metal track to no specific destination.
That, and the five-car-long smile on Aaron’s face.
“From what I hear, when (Jimbo) bought it, all he told (the store’s owner) is that it was for a young friend of his,” said Campbell, who lives in Hollister but hadn’t spoken to her little brother in 20 years. Campbell granted permission to Pat DeLeon, the owner of All Aboard Junction where Jimbo bought the train, to give the set to Aaron, whom he believed Jimbo bought it for.
“Aaron has had some hard times,” Campbell continued, “and apparently one day he asked his mom for the electric set in the store, and she said she couldn’t afford to buy it. Jimbo overheard this and starting saving. That’s the type of person Jimbo was – always caring.”
Following Jimbo’s death on the cold and rain-soaked evening of Dec. 14, DeLeon joined many other community members in grieving the sudden death of the homeless man who had become welcome into their businesses and lives as a friend.
DeLeon’s store in the old Nob Hill shopping center was where Jimbo spent many of his days – discussing trains and anything rail-yard related with other store regulars.
Jimbo had paid his last installment on the $45 electric train set days before his death, and told DeLeon he would pick it up before Christmas Eve.
When it became clear that Jimbo wouldn’t make it back to his favorite hangout, DeLeon and other friends began to call the county coroner’s office to try and locate members of Jimbo’s family.
At first the task seemed futile – little was known about Jimbo’s past – and DeLeon began taking collections from well-wishers in the community to pay for Jimbo’s cremation, collecting several envelopes with cash and receiving several more inquiries.
But then DeLeon received some good news: Jimbo had a sister who lived in Hollister.
“I called her to get her permission to give the train to Aaron,” DeLeon said. “She agreed right away.”
Aaron couldn’t be happier with the results.
Ever since he was born, Aaron has struggled to overcome both a cleft pallet and Velo Cardio Facial Syndrome – which essentially means he’s missing his 22nd chromosome.
A second open-heart surgery in October 2001 to repair a heart valve has improved his condition considerably, but Aaron still has a long track of needles, knives and excrutiatingly frustrating recovery time away from his friends in front of him.
“He didn’t start talking to himself and making up stories until he was about 6 – normal children start when they are 3 or 4 – he wasn’t interested in anything, he’d just lie there,” Holguin said. “Then he started getting into trains. He got a set, and soon every day he was making a new track design and making up fantasies and stories. He’s come a long way socially in the last three years.”
Wooden train tracks, bridges, tunnels, cars and every other train accessory known to railway lovers have transformed Holguin’s and Aaron’s living room into a mini depot.
Reading is now Aaron’s favorite subject in his first-grade class at Antonio Del Buono Elementary because he can’t put down a “Thomas the Tank Engine” book.
During the 10-week recovery period following Aaron’s latest heart surgery – in which he was not allowed to be around crowds or exert too much energy – playing with trains was one of the few things the doctors would allow him to do.
“Trains have really been a savior to him,” Holguin said. “His confidence has grown so much.”
Like Aaron, Jimbo also had a hard-knock childhood, but the circumstances were a bit different, Campbell said.
After growing up in an abusive foster home in San Jose, Jimbo dropped out of school his freshman year of high school to become a minister.
“He was always very much a loner,” Campbell said. “He was always reading when the other kids were playing, and he always loved cars and trains. He had a tough run growing up.”
After giving up the ministry, Jimbo was briefly married and moved with his wife to Colorado. But after she suffered a miscarriage, the relationship fell apart, and Jimbo returned to Silicon Valley, deflated and broken.
“He was always in and out of my life,” Campbell said, who is one year older than Jimbo. “We were very close growing up, but the last time I saw him was 20 years ago when he hugged me and told me he would be gone for a while.”
Trains offer hope, traveling to far away, mysteriously wonderful lands, holding the prospects of a better life with each lunge toward the horizon – that’s why Jimbo loved trains, Campbell believes.
Trains also create junctions between distant lands – bringing strangers like Aaron and Jimbo together.
“This won’t be a short-lived thing,” Holguin said. “Aaron will be enjoying trains through his manhood. … Jimbo’s train will always be there.”
Police are still looking for the driver of either a dark colored SUV-type vehicle or a light-colored, full-size American pickup truck, possibly white or silver, with a broken headlamp lens and a possible cracked windshield on the passenger side that killed Jimbo. The truck’s rear fenders may be flared out.
Anyone with information about the hit-and-run can call the GPD at 846-0300.
