Massachusetts
Patriots RB TreVeyon Henderson surprises Massachusetts boy with rare health challenges
Stuck at Boston Children’s Hospital, facing unimaginable health challenges, a 12-year-old Chelmsford boy received hope from Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson.
Henderson sent a video to Jack Jolie, rooting for the bubbly youngster to overcome all the obstacles stacked up against him. It was just 10 seconds, but Jack says the message means the world to him.
“What’s up, Jack? TreVeyon Henderson here, man,” the promising rookie says in the video. “Man, I hope you get better. I just want to let you know that I am praying for you, man. God bless, man.”
Jack received the video on Jan. 2. Eleven days later, he was discharged from the hospital and headed home. The boy will soon be evaluated for a liver transplant, as he is battling internal bleeding from portal hypertension.
On Sunday, Jack and his entire family will have their eyes glued to the television as the Patriots face the Seahawks in Super Bowl LX. This is New England’s first championship game that Jack will fully remember, and he hopes that Henderson, his favorite player, “finds the outside” for a long rushing touchdown.
Win or lose, Jack says he will always root for Henderson and that the running back may not be aware of the full magnitude of his video of encouragement.
“It helps me a lot,” Jack told the Herald via phone ahead of Super Bowl weekend. “I know that they are there for me, and I know that everyone is here for me. It definitely is big.”
Jack’s mother, Meghan Jolie, says her son has the “best support system there is,” with a large family, a big group of friends, and “really understanding” teachers. The network has grown to include Henderson and the Patriots organization.
“It kind of brings it full circle,” the mother said of Henderson’s video. “It doesn’t take much to help, especially with these celebrity athletes. For them, to say ‘Send a 15-second video,’ hopefully it doesn’t take a whole lot out of their day to do, but it really meant a lot going through this type of time.”
As a 2-year-old in 2015, Jack was diagnosed with a rare form of severe combined immunodeficiency, which doctors describe as a life-threatening genetic disorder where infants are born with little to no immune system.
Jack then received a bone marrow transplant to combat the diagnosis, but his immune system rejected it. Over the years, the youngster has suffered from symptoms of graft-versus-host disease: scarring issues with his eyes, lung and liver disease, among others, his mother said.
Over the past few months, Jack has been admitted to Boston Children’s Hospital several times and spent time in between the intensive care unit and regular care. He was home less than a handful of nights between Dec. 20 and Jan. 13.
“It’s a lot of waiting and seeing,” Meghan Jolie told the Herald. “We take every day as it comes, deal with what we have to, and figure it out.”
Through it all, Jack has turned into a Patriots superfan. He watches more games than not, even when hospitalized, and has become knowledgeable about football and the NFL.
Proof: “I am really shocked by how much Mike Vrabel was able to change the team from four wins,” Jack said of New England’s head coach. “Now, they are in the stinkin’ Super Bowl.”
“The best part is that we have beaten a lot of great defenses,” the youngster said of the Patriots’ Super Bowl run, becoming the first team in NFL history to defeat three top-five defenses. “If we just get rolling in the beginning, we have a chance to win this one and get banner 7 here in Foxboro.”
Jack and his family attended the Week 15 loss to Buffalo. Despite New England’s 10-game winning streak ending, the young fan gained an ultimate VIP gameday experience, including club seats and pregame field passes.
Jack’s mother’s boyfriend, William DiTullio, applied for the opportunity, with the Patriots selecting the family for the experience.
While on the field, star cornerback Christian Gonzalez spotted Jack and threw a ball over to him. The family then went over by the tunnel where the Patriots are introduced, and Jack tried his best to get Henderson’s attention, but couldn’t.
“Jack has a very big personality, but his voice didn’t quite travel,” his mother said, chuckling.
In the loss, Henderson recorded two rushing touchdowns of over 50 yards. “We were going wild,” Meghan Jolie said.
Days after the game, Jack was admitted to the hospital. DiTullio shared Jack’s story with Stacey James, asking the Patriots’ vice president of communications whether Henderson could send Jack a little video.
A few days later, James emailed DiTullio, saying, “Hopefully this will brighten Jack’s spirits and let him know that we’re all thinking about him.”
“That stuff always thrills me,” DiTullio said of the video. “I just feel like there’s not a lot of that in the world today, and too many people are just self-absorbed.”
“They could have easily just taken the request,” he added, “and said, ‘We get a dozen of these a day, we can’t fulfill them all.’ I know how much he loves TreVeyon.”
Jack quickly responded to Henderson’s message, thanking him for the video.
“It really meant a lot, and I hope you guys have fun and do your best in the playoffs. … Maybe once I get out of Boston Children’s Hospital, we can maybe meet up sometime and play catch just because you’re my favorite player.”
Henderson responded to the video with a message on X the evening before the Patriots’ Divisional Round game against the Texans: “Glad you are headed home Jack! God bless,” the running back wrote.
The meteor responsible for a loud boom heard in Rhode Island and Massachusetts Saturday afternoon was approximately 5 feet in diameter and weighed more than 12,000 pounds, according to NASA.
The object entered Earth’s atmosphere at roughly 42,000 mph, a NASA spokesperson said. It then traveled through the atmosphere from northwest to southeast for 26 miles before breaking up and producing a meteorite fall into Cape Cod Bay.
The energy released when the object broke up at an altitude of 31 miles is estimated to be equivalent to about 230 tons of TNT, according to NASA.
Professor Ralph Milliken of the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Brown University spoke with NBC 10’s Mike Cerullo. (WJAR)
While it’s not very common to experience a 5-foot-wide meteorite, there is a significant amount of debris from space that reaches Earth.
“The estimates are that we probably have about 5,000 tons of cosmic dust and material and meteorites landing on Earth. The vast majority of that is super tiny stuff, we’re talking things that are smaller than a grain of sand, or the thickness of a human hair,” said Professor Ralph Milliken of the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Brown University. “For something of this size a few feet across, it’s not that common, but a few a year. Most of these would occur over uninhabited areas, over the ocean, and we wouldn’t be able to see them, but they are detected.”
Because of its size, a meteorite with a 5-foot diameter is difficult to track before it enter Earth’s atmosphere.
“It’s virtually impossible to kind of know in advance of this size object coming,” Milliken said.
The area where a meteorite crashed in Cape Cod Bay. (WJAR)
Scientists are, however, able to track much larger space objects. NASA has been developing technology to try to deflect larger objects if needed.
Events like what occurred in New England over the weekend are recorded. Although other fireballs enter Earth’s atmosphere throughout the year, many of them materialize over water and uninhabited areas.
Massachusetts
Winners’ circle: Tracking every 2026 spring high school championship – The Boston Globe
Championship season is upon us, and we’re tracking every title winner in Massachusetts this spring.
From the golf sectionals in late May to championship weekend June 11-14, a four-day stretch in which 31 titlists will be crowned across boys’ and girls’ lacrosse, boys and girls’ tennis, boys’ and girls’ rugby, boys’ volleyball, softball, and baseball, we’ll have you covered.
Find all the dates, brackets, seedings, matchups, and links to our postseason previews here.
Follow us on X @GlobeSchools, Instagram @BGlobeSchools, and Facebook to stay up to date.
Over at Globe.com/Schools you’ll find our daily scoreboard, nightly Takeaways, game coverage, videos, live streams, and our weekly Varsity News newsletter (sign up for free) to keep you in the know.
Division 1: Lexington girls, St. John’s Prep boys
Lexington girls graduate to two-time Division 1 track champions, St. John’s Prep sprints to boys’ title
Division 2: Billerica girls, North Andover boys
Billerica girls unphazed by move up to Division 2, going back-to-back as North Andover boys dominate
Division 3: Canton girls, Walpole boys
Canton girls cap greatest season with first Division 3 track title, Walpole boys win by thinnest margin
Division 4: Duxbury girls, Newburyport boys
Historic win for Duxbury girls, Mohoric paces Newburyport boys to Division 4 outdoor track championship
Division 5: North Reading girls, Weston boys
It’s four in a row for North Reading girls, two straight for Weston boys at Division 5 track championships
Division 6: Ayer Shirley girls, Abington boys
Ayer Shirley girls pick up where they left off, Abington boys twinning at Division 6 track championships
Day 1, Divisions 1, 2, and 5: Lexington boys and girls setting the pace at Division 1 track & field championships
Day 1, Divisions 3, 4, and 6: Canton girls make a strong run to first at Division 3 track championships
South: Walpole | With Tori Adams as its driving force, Walpole scores third straight MIAA South girls’ golf championship
North/Central/West: Hopkinton | Concord-Carlisle’s Sophie Redmond, Hopkinton rule MIAA girls’ golf championship for North/Central/West
With titles for Natick and Peabody and smiles for all, MIAA unified track championship ‘beyond inspiring’
Brendan Kurie can be reached at brendan.kurie@globe.com. Follow him on X @BrendanKurie.
Massachusetts
Meteor Lands In Cape Cod + Bus Crash Kills 5 From MA + Wind Storm Knocks Out Power To Thousands: MA Weekend
MASSACHUSETTS — Residents throughout New England were simultaneously startled as a meteor that landed in Cape Cod caused a sonic boom this past weekend.
Meanwhile, a bus driver is facing charges after five Massachusetts residents died in a crash on a highway in Virginia.
Plus, another State Trooper was caught handling a wrong-way driver situation on Route 1.
Mysterious Boom Heard Across MA Was An Exploding Meteor, Experts Say
The noises were heard around 2:11 p.m. Saturday, with people describing a sudden bang that rattled windows and even shook some homes. The American Meteor Society said that the booms heard were actually caused by a meteor about three feet wide entering the atmosphere near the border of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Residents as far as Ipswich and Johnston, Rhode Island, reported hearing and feeling the sensations. Meteorologist Nick Stewart shared satellite images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, showing where the meteor entered the atmosphere and combusted while traveling at 75,000 miles per hour above the ocean.
Bus Driver Charged After MA Family Of 4, Worcester Woman Killed In VA Crash
Jing S. Dong, of Staten Island, New York, now faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the collision, which occurred around 2:35 a.m. Friday on southbound I-95 near Quantico. Among those killed were a 45-year-old man, a 44-year-old woman, a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, all from Greenfield, Massachusetts. All were in the Acura, which police said caught fire after the collisions. Police on Saturday evening identified the fifth person killed as Priscilla R. Mafalda, 25, of Worcester, Massachusetts, who was riding in the Suburban struck by the bus.
In total, about 44 people were transported to area hospitals, including three with critical injuries.
State Trooper Hospitalized After Route 1 Wrong-Way Crash In Peabody
State Police said the trooper was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after police acted in coordination to protect traffic and stop the driver, who was traveling southbound on Route 1 North in Peabody. The incident occurred not far from the location on Route 1 where State Trooper Kevin Trainor was killed when his cruiser was hit head-on in a wrong-way crash in Lynnfield last month. The driver in Sunday’s crash was also hospitalized and charged with operating under the influence of liquor, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and driving the wrong way on a state highway.
Rapidly Expanding Grocery Chain Has Big Plans For MA
Sprouts Farmers Market is slated to launch up to 40 locations throughout the region in the coming years. Construction has begun for the first Massachusetts spot in Weymouth, which has an opening date of 2028. The Phoenix-based organic grocery chain has more than 480 stores in 25 states.
Saturday’s Meteorite Was ‘Fishy Squisher’ And NASA Knows Where To Find It In Cape Cod Bay
Data from NASA suggest fragments of the meteorite lie in waters from the middle of the bay to about 10 miles northeast of the town of Sandwich. The agency said late Saturday it picked up radar signatures of the fragments from four radar sites, and termed the strike a “fishy squisher.” The meteorite entered Earth’s atmosphere about 40 miles above the Bay State and southern New Hampshire, creating the sonic boom. Water in the bombarded portion of Cape Cod Bay is about 100 feet deep.
35K Without Power As Winter-Like Storm Pummels MA With 55+ MPH Winds
Massachusetts residents throughout the North Shore were without power on Saturday morning as a winter-like storm tore a path of tree damage, downpours, and fierce winds throughout New England. Widespread tree damage was reported across the state, with the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency reporting 34,228 customers without power as of 11:20 a.m. Wind speeds reached a high of 55 miles per hour. Temperatures dropped into the 40s with wind chills in the 30s as the storm arrived across the Bay State. The unsettled weather will continue through Monday and Tuesday before a warming trend takes hold later in the week.
See Also:
Cape Shoreline Named Among The Nation’s 10 Best, According To ‘Dr. Beach’
-
North Carolina7 minutes agoThe Real Reason North Carolina’s GOP Is Proposing the Most Radical Anti-Abortion Bill Yet
-
North Dakota10 minutes ago10 Small Towns In North Dakota Were Ranked Among US Favorites
-
Ohio15 minutes agoCentral Ohio family sues Hilliard funeral home after mother mistakenly cremated
-
Oklahoma22 minutes agoOklahoma AG files petition to block proposed smelting project in Inola
-
Oregon25 minutes agoNew Jersey man sentenced in Oregon federal court for conspiring to distribute fentanyl
-
Pennsylvania30 minutes agoDigital News Publishers Launch Pennsylvania Independent News Association (PiNA) to Advocate for Local News Organizations – Saucon Source
-
South-Carolina34 minutes agoSouth Carolina store owner found not guilty of murder in fatal shooting of Black teen
-
Rhode Island37 minutes agoFlight restrictions over World Cup sites: Unpermitted drones could be destroyed if they fly in certain areas – The Boston Globe
