By Sean McDevitt
FightingIllini.com

Maybe you celebrate Mother's Day with a special family brunch.

Maybe it's a day filled with flowers and cards.

Maybe the day is filled with memories and laughter.

If you happen to be Jamarra Dosunmu for the last several years, it meant a weekend spent in a gymnasium watching a basketball or volleyball game.

She wouldn't have it any other way.

"It's really crazy."

While everyone is winning the wait this Mother's Day by staying safely indoors and hoping for a return to something resembling normalcy, the Dosunmu family will be spending it the way they always do--together. Although, this year will include a video conferencing call.

"On Easter, we had a FaceTime call with everybody," said Dosunmu. "Literally it was supposed to be just a chat for maybe 10-15 minutes and ended up lasting two and a half hours. It was just our family, enjoying each other, doing what we were doing. I was cooking, and my sister was cooking. Just to be able to spend time together the best way we could during this situation, we were making the best out of it."

With the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone is now under the same roof. Her two daughters, Joselynn and Khadijat, were both staying with their parents before moving to new places. Kube and Ayo unexpectedly found themselves back home after the statewide stay-at-home order closed both their respective colleges, Illinois-Springfield and the University of Illinois.

She loves having everyone under one roof, but the grocery bill has suddenly changed.

Dosunmu said of everyone being home, "It hasn't been a huge adjustment because we were accustomed to doing that anyway. Now with the boys being home, my grocery bill is ridiculous. It's really crazy. I'm literally going to the grocery store at least twice, maybe sometimes three times a week because I cook."

Ayo's favorite dish is pasta, and the recent overseas trip helped her perfect her Italian dishes. "I learned how Italian pasta is totally different from American pasta and all the different ways to serve it."

"Basketball was his sport."

Watching her sons and daughters play sports was a given in the Dosunmu household. Sports run in the family.

"I've watched a lot of basketball," said Dosunmu. "Three out of four of my children would play the game at the highest level. Khadijat was an amazing basketball player. She played both basketball and volleyball. She's an amazing athlete. Ayo played a little bit of basketball, baseball, and football, but we knew that basketball was his sport."

While there are no family sports superstitions, they do have a strategic sitting order when watching games at State Farm Center.

As Ayo continued to excel through high school at Morgan Park and now at the University of Illinois, the drive and determination to work hard have always been at the forefront. It started with Jamarra and her husband Quam, instilling a work ethic.

"The mantra that Coach Underwood gave the team, 'Everyday Guys,' is similar to how my husband and I raised the boys," said Dosunmu. "It was blue-collar, and that's been their everyday life. Ayo would say, 'I work hard at my craft. I try to do everything right. I try to live with integrity, and I grind every day.' The mantra they have there, it's one that he's been brought up by pretty much all of his life."

"I had their back."

Being such a close family, Dosunmu knew it was essential to be there for her son as much as possible. Dosunmu said, "I knew Ayo was that kid that drives off of his family being connected to him and being there with him. So we knew that it was something that he was going to need to be successful."

With family such a vital part of the Dosunmu house, Jamarra and Quam reached out to the parents of the players on the Fighting Illini Men's Basketball team who couldn't be at every game.

Dosunmu said, "I never wanted to step on anybody's toes and overstep my boundaries, but I've always offered any type of assistance that I could. I've met pretty much all of them like Kofi's mom, who is not able to be with her son as much as I am, or Giorgi's mom, or even some of them who were a little more local. So I just always made sure that they knew if they needed me, whatever they needed me to do, I had their back. That was important for me."

"Truly a blessing."

Having unforeseen time with her youngest son has been wonderful for Jamarra. After the whirlwind of AAU travel and USA Basketball the last few summers, this time has been precious.

"So for the last two summers, he hasn't been home," said Dosunmu. "So having him here, I mean it's a blessing. I have all four of my children here and everyone is healthy. We're fine. I would feel horrible complaining about us all being in the house together because somebody's getting on my nerves, or I cook too much, or whatever.

"It's truly a blessing."