Sometimes when you lose a huge part of your family, turning to another family can be the thing that helps you carry on.
Jessica and Carlos Armadillo have been Panthers fans for decades and Roaring Riot members since 2019 - they were both an active part of the Houston chapter, the Space City Riot, for years despite living hours away in Corpus Christi. Each year, the husband and wife would take a trip to Carolina to see a home game - they hadn’t missed a game in seven years. Their marriage and their life sparkled with Process Blue - from their Christmas tree to the tattoos adorning Carlos’ upper body, the Carolina Panthers were a huge part of who the Armadillos are.
On a previous trip to Charlotte to see the Panthers play, Jessica - who had been battling multiple illnesses over the past few years - could be seen in the crowd at Bank of America Stadium holding a sign that read “I Need a New Kidney” with her phone number below it.
In October of this year, Jessica succumbed to congestive heart failure and passed, leaving Carlos and his children not only missing a huge part of their family but scrambling to try to take on the costs of the funeral in the midst of grieving the loss of their matriarch.
“It was her time already. But she fought a long, hard fight, and she was in a lot of pain, but she just kept pounding throughout all that pain. She kept pounding. She kept being a mom, a grandma, a wife, a daughter,” Armadillo told Spectrum News.
The Riot Foundation donated money to help cover bereavement expenses and shared Carlos and Jessica’s story, helping to raise enough money for a proper send-off for Jessica.
“Your wings were ready, but our hearts were not,” read the marker under a picture of Jessica wearing her beloved Luke Kuechly jersey.
The Roaring Riot Foundation was also proud to bring Carlos and his family to Charlotte for the December 21 Panthers game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, helping not only to continue the tradition of coming to Charlotte to see a game but to surround Carlos with his Roaring Riot family of Panthers fans.
Carlos credits the Panthers’ 23-20 win over the Bucs to Jess watching from above.
“I was talking to her and begging her for her to help us in some kind of way, like angels in the outfield. Jess was on that field, and, I really think it was her helping us out,” he said.
“I almost gave up on Keep Pounding,” he wrote on Facebook shortly after Jessica passed. “But my Panthers family and my Roaring Riot family and my Space City Riot family showed me the real meaning behind Keep Pounding…my wife would want me (to) Keep Pounding.
“Thank y’all for the love and support y’all given me and my family.”