They weren't so close when she was 7 and he was 5.
Jessica Bernhardt thought her little brother Justin, who was born with some brain damage, was not much fun.
He couldn't hear for the first 13 months of his life. He was slow to crawl, walk and talk. He banged his head. He cried constantly and took way too much of their parents' time.
Then one summer morning, they went to Bible school at the church in their suburb of St. Louis. Justin grew strangely sick that day. He couldn't lift his arms or put his chin to his chest. He covered his eyes from the sun.
Back home, he went into a coma.
"At the ER, the first night we went in there, we really weren't that close," Jessica says. "But I think knowing that my brother had stopped breathing for a while -- as soon as I found that out, I'm like, 'Oh, my gosh! My brother is going to die. I'm not going to have a brother.'"
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Before getting sick, Justin could count to 100. He knew the alphabet. After, he had to start all over, like a baby again.
Sometimes, his heart would stop. Jessica would lie awake and listen for the sound of his breath.
She is 16 now, and he is 14. They're best friends. Wherever she goes, he goes.
This July, she'll be cheering him on at the Special Olympics 2010 USA National Games in Lincoln, where he'll compete in basketball.
"Oh, my gosh. You have no idea how excited he is," says Jessica, who signed up to be a volunteer for volleyball and opening and closing ceremonies -- anything she can.
"Every day he's like, 'Sissy, I can't wait until Nebraska!'"
Justin is the shortest, youngest player on his Missouri team. But the kid has shot up, Jessica says. He's 5-foot-5 and growing. He's lost 30 pounds playing so much basketball. He's developed six-pack abs.
He likes to make her laugh.
I'm a chick magnet, he tells her. I'm a chick magnet.
She's only 5-foot-4. He teases her that she's his little sister now.
They tell each other everything. The other day, he told her about a curly-haired girl he likes at school.
Jessica has many friends. They are Justin's friends, too. When Jessica invites people over for parties and backyard bonfires, Justin is one of the gang.
She defends him at school when kids harass him.
"They're like, ‘Why can't you read? Are you stupid?' Horrible things."
Their mother is amazed how close the two have become. The other day, Julie Bernhardt watched them pack a picnic lunch and camera and ride off on their bikes. They returned, she says, with the most amazing photos of each other.
She says Jessica talks all the time about the places she'll take Justin when she gets her driver's license.
She says Jessica hates to think about what will happen in two years, when she goes to college or the Air Force.
When she is 18 and he is 16.
"She says, ‘Mom, in two more years, I'm going to be gone and Justin is going to be here. What are we going to do? What's he going to do?'
"I think it scares her, to be separated from him."
