Linda Kay Sauve

When I met her, Linda Jackson was her last name from her first husband. I soon found out her maiden name Hempel, was much more fitting. Linda had a German blood line that, in my opinion, made her the strong and loving person she was.

Her father Harry was the son of a preacher from Michigan, so religion was held to a high level in her family growing up. Her mother Mary’s family was from Arkansas. Her grandfather, a hard working farmer, was forced to leave so the government could make room for a dam and a new lake that submerged their rich farm land.

Like refugees from another country during the depression years, both families moved to California to find a new way of life. So I have to thank her Grandfathers and Grandmothers for making the brave decision that eventually joined Linda and I.

To prove my point of Linda’s strength; when we first met, Linda was a parking enforcement officer at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California. She had been on the job for ten years and had seen and heard just about any disgusting things humans can do when faced by law enforcement, including being spat at. Believe it or not, incidences like that just made her stronger.

We met in Newport Beach, California in the summer of 1988, where I was living with two girls in a beautiful two story house one block from the beach. The band I played in jokingly nicknamed me Tripper (referring to the TV show Three’s Company’s, Jack Tripper). Ironically my roommate Kathleen was only my roommate because I screwed up the advertisement to rent the spare room we had. I mistakenly put the wrong phone number in the ad which led to a three week delay with no calls. Once the mistake was corrected, Kathleen was the first to answer the ad needing a place to live. Kathleen met our approval and three months later set me up on a blind date with her friend, a beautiful curly blond haired parking officer.

The stars were definitely in alignment, from my move to Newport Beach to that dyslexic ad I placed. Six months later I was moving to Upland, California with a new job, new place to live and a new love.

So began our 29 year blended family relationship. We were married in May of 1990, and lived happily in Upland for five years until the economy slumped and I looked long and hard for a new job. The job turned out to be in Nashville, Tennessee and Linda, after spending her entire life in sunny Southern California, fifteen years as a devoted college employee, did not hesitate. She took the move in her usual strong stride and we trekked across the country to our new home in the South.

Nashville was foreign ground for Linda. The South was somewhere her mother grew up. She felt like a duck out of water, but at the same time challenged herself to adapt. The first job she had was driving a bus at Belmont College shuttling students back and forth from their dorms. One cold winter of that and she was looking for something better. Then, she landed a job with Wells Fargo, now Loomis Fargo, wearing a 38 caliber revolver and filling up ATM machines all over central Tennessee. Now that’s tough.

At times she would cart around a half a million dollars in her personal vehicle by herself filling the machines. To say that was a dangerous job was a broad understatement. She spend the next three years handling millions of dollars until she was promoted inside their secure facility as a manager, of course, still packing heat everywhere she went.

Eventually, she gave up her gun to work for our good friend Kyle Waites, who thankfully rescued her from that madness. I was sure relieved.

She stayed with Kyle’s company until I had an opportunity to move to Austin with a very successful Land Surveying Firm. One look at Austin was all she needed. California style climate, new home, she was more than willing to follow me again, thank God.

We lived at our first house in Austin for about eight years, doing some remodeling, then selling and building our first brand new home in Southwest Austin. She loved decorating and I always told her she missed her calling. After about two years, the house looked better than the model that originally caught our attention. She did a magnificent job top to bottom.

It wasn’t long after the house was exactly the way she wanted it that we got the bad news. In June of 2012, she was diagnosed with Stage Four, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. X-rays revealed a shotgun spray of cancer nodules and tumors in her lungs and it had metastasized into her bones. The bone cancer was the worst because it was very painful.

A few weeks before her diagnosis, I had planned a vacation to the West coast. Although she was in terrible pain and still coughing from the cancer, she said we had to go. She loved California and she knew how much I needed a vacation and with the doctor’s permission she toughed it out once again and we spent a week exploring Big Sur, Monterey and the Carmel hills.

As soon as we got home, the real fight began. Five months of Chemotherapy and radiation. Through it all, she kept a positive attitude and never gave in to the pain or misery of the Chemo. Two years ago, with a good supply of pain pills, we actually took a vacation to our favorite spot in the Panhandle of Florida. We sat on the beach, went to movies, ate at some great restaurants and had a great time together. She was fighting the disease the entire time just for me.

The last three weeks of her life were the worst a human being could ever endure. Yet to the very end, she fought and fought to breathe. The great people at Hospice Austin and Christopher House made her as comfortable as they could until she finally gave in to God’s plea.

I loved Linda with all my heart. She was my soul mate, my lover, my rock. I miss her deeply and will always treasure the happy fun times we had together.

Thank you Sweetheart, with love always,

Paul

Linda is survived by her husband, Paul; son Jason R. Jackson; stepson Scott P. Sauve; stepdaughter Sarah L. Burnside; brother Robert R. Hempel; and a host of other family and friends.

To view a music video tribute to Linda by her loving husband, Paul, see the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3OkOxPqv0A&feature=youtu.be