Josephine Y. Jones

The last day…4 hours of laying my head on her frail little body and softly whispering endless profound words to her. Her eyes were so beckoning…I could feel her spirit near the Lord Jesus and knew she was looking at me from Heaven. I was speaking to her spirit beyond. I could see God in those beautiful blue eyes.

I had no doubt, what I was seeing. After I had left, she passed away a couple of hours later…LORD Jesus had finally held her in his arms and took her home on a ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ toward the great bright light. When they arrived…there was an enormous gala being held for her, celebrating her new life. Oh! There was Daddy and he was as handsome as ever, young, and healthy, dressed in his WW2 Marine uniform, and mom had transformed into her gorgeous healthy youth as well, wearing an amazing sparkly white evening gown. She floated towards my dad and they naturally began their ballroom dancing to the classic live big band music, played by all the originals and as they danced they were settled inside a golden glow. Then all my mom’s friends, relatives, and pets came into view and soon after…my mom began her brand new life, where we all come from, and everything was familiar, and then she remembered…this was HOME…All she felt…was LOVE.

Josephine Young Jones…my mom…was an only child, and was born in Booneville, Mississippi, on June 17, 1926. She passed on October 15, 2017. Her mom, Marian Newman Young, was an English professor at the Houston Baptist University (who was also a member on this church) and taught Sunday School at the Clarewood House. Mom’s dad, Joe Young, ran a country hardware store in Mississippi. He passed away before I was born. I’ve only seen pictures of him and imagined what he must have been. I know I would have loved him too. He was known for his life-long devotion to his church and civic duty for Cancer drives. He, like my dad was a veteran of WW2. I look forward to someday meeting both my granddads.

Mom, a country gal, had her very own horse that she loved so much when she was very young. She too loved all animals and her last kitty she loved was named Luckat but mainly called Kitsy…well Dad…I think maybe she did love her cat, more than us…as you always had said.

Mom went to Ole Miss and for a ‘fun tid bit’ she told me that, one semester Johnny Carson went there and he had a crush on my mom’s roommate. He did magic tricks all the time and they thought he was silly. Well, whenever he would call her roommate she would go “shush, shush, I’m not here!” Little did they know, his name was also KIT Carson and I have her yearbook to prove it!!

Mom also went to University of Alabama where she met my dad Charles Donald Jones, whom yall know as Buck. They were on a double date, and mom and daddy were not paired off with each other at the time but when my dad laid eyes on her, he fell in love at first site, so he asked her on a date later on in the game. She fell in love with him, as most of y’all know, because he was a wonderful man, tall, handsome, funny, the sweetest most giving man and a good dancer to boot! They eventually got married and moved to Houston. After a few years they did the best thing they had ever done in their lives…They adopted me! Actually, I was the LUCKY one!! What an awesome gift from God.

I just recently went through (too many photos to count) of my parents. Wow there was so much they did that I didn’t not know about them! There were so many pictures of my stunning mom and dad in Alabama and Mississippi, at the beach, in Mexico, dinner parties with their friends just like you see in the movies. This was around 1947. I was in awe seeing them so stylish in their 20’s. A style you only see in the movies, those old black and white ones.

I wonder if they knew they were so stunning.

I loved the way they dressed, very fashionable especially back in the day before, I think of Lauren Bacall and maybe Gregory Peck and Sidney Poitier, the Rat Pack, the list is endless and all eloquently styled.

Then there were mom’s pictures of their travels all over the world. I could tell she travelled all her life because of the difference of her hair color from very dark brown to a little gray, and to silver. Not only do I cherish these special keepsakes for me because they show a life well lived, and not the sad last few years, but they also are loaded with art history photos from their trips, that I enjoy so much.

Mom traveled all over the world with her mom, and with Daddy, many times. I realized that mom’s dad passed when mom was married to dad. It seemed then Marian ( whom she had me call her Dolie) were together most of the time. It was as if daddy took care of his girls, my mom and Dolie. Not that Dolie didn’t have her own friends, not by a long shot! And my parents had so many friends. I just realize now that daddy was taking care of his family. Mom was an only child. Dad grew up without his dad, because he had passed away when my dad was 3. He grew up with 3 older sisters and his mom. My grandmother Dolie, had her friends, but I believe she and my mom were best friends. And my dad’s best friends were Mom and Dolie.

My parents loved to have beautiful bridge parties, loved to swim, played golf at the Sharpstown Country Club. Mom always stayed in great shape with her walking as well as her exercise video. She also enjoyed mall walking, trips to Galveston and the zoo. Both Dad and her drank Aloe Vera liquid everyday from real Aloe Vera. Who knows if that natural medicine and exercised helped them live for so long? Or, their bit of wine in the evening. That also could have prospered a long life, possibly.

She loved going to church her whole life. She was also very feisty. I remember her calling the TV show ‘Laugh in’ and told them that show was inappropriate and she would not let her young daughter watch it and that they’d better take it off the air!! Oh and she wouldn’t even let me have a Barbie until I was a certain age, because Barbie and Ken had a few bumps in private areas. YEP!!!

Very conservative in my upbringing. Very strict.

Mom and my grandmother would make me flawless clothes and doll clothes when I young. I then learned how to sew when I was 10. Mom was very talented in crafts as well. She also, back then, played the piano very well. She was an amazing mom, wife, housewife, really good cook, and teach. She also worked at Shell when they first got to Houston.

Mom sure was a mom a daughter would want to please. The love she gave was true. Her little Jo ways, were so very cute. Jack and I now often imitate my mom and dad. Things they said and did we would repeat and laugh from a very fond memory. By the end, my parents and I and even Jack had truly gotten to know each other and all of us fell into a different kind of adult love that was pure and unconditional.

Mom was always very patriotic and loved all kinds of sports, especially loved college Alabama football (crimson tide). A nice memory of mine is of her playing solitaire listening to the ballgame on a radio in my parent’s bedroom, and I’d fall asleep on the bed. Up to this day, hearing a baseball game soothes me. I’ll also always think of her when I’d eat a cucumber or tomato sandwich and a piece of watermelon, because when I was kid that’s what we would do, then we would watch ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ and the ‘Match Game’ and then take a nap. Of course, I never slept, but she made me lay in bed for an hour! I’m sure she needed at least an hour of peace…from me!

One of her passions was art history, which I personally love as well! She loved the theater, so do I and many kinds of performance art, I adore it. The Jones family loved the performing and visual arts & history exhibitions & nature, and animals. WE LOVE THEM!!! Music…LOVE IT!! MOVIES…love it!! Some of Mom’s faves are Gone with the Wind, the King and I, Pretty Woman, Elvis and Anne Murrey, The Ode to Billie Jo song because it mentioned the Old Tallahassee Bridge, in Mississippi. We had the 45. She listened to it all the time. She adored Gregory Peck, Andy Williams, Big Band, and the old classics and old church hymns, until she had a hard time hearing and concentrating. The smallest things brought joy to her though, and yes, I will admit at the end things did get pretty tough, to say the least.

She had a long list she was compassionate about donating to, with a huge giving heart.

I did travel and lived all over the place with my creative art work. I was living a different kind of lifestyle than I do now, but did eventually make the full circle and ended right back next to my parents and started living again in my own home town of Houston in the neighborhood I had grown up in. I had gone to this church often for a period of time when we moved here, at least at age 9 till I graduated from High School when I was 17 in the mid 70’s.

We lived in one of the first homes built in Sharpstown as it was mostly country. Then so many families with kids my age moved in. So many that since we lived on Roos Road, we called ourselves the Roos Rats. We kids found many arrowheads in the fields and rabbits everywhere. Awesome neighborhood and we always made up things to do, mostly outside. Nothing like kids today!

My grandmother Marion went here to this Gethsemane church first. Many years later, I eventually moved into a condo next to my parent’s building in 2000 because it was near a school where I got a job teaching art in Missouri City. My mom had retired from teaching and Dolie had passed away when I was living in NYC and other places and traveling on jobs, at the age of 26 up to my later 30’s. It was the mid 90’s now and mom had been serving as the President of the Board at the high-rise condos and worked on the board up to her 80s. Dad and Mom also had a modest country house by a small man-made lake outside of Houston in Waller County that my Dad built. I remember enjoying it shortly before I graduated and went off to do my young life adventures. They continued to enjoy many days with their smoker grill, cooking wonderful meals and their hot jalapenos with pimento cheese cooked in the microwave, shrimp, going to ballgames, and so much more. Dad built a huge screened in patio, a beautiful deck, and a pier on the lake. They also grew a fabulous vegetable garden in the country on their land. I really miss those organic home grown vegetables; kale, miles of sweet Texas grown tomatoes and the okra were my faves.

She, along with my dad, were volunteers at the SW Memorial Hospital for 15 years or so and they loved it.

They had a full social life, always going to church, going to see performing and visual arts. Always planning their next trip. Yes, I took a road down memory lane and a lane I never even knew about until I went through all their photos. Mom and dad were very private, even to me. Then again, they didn’t understand the adventures I was having in my life either. But that didn’t matter. All I knew was I loved my mom so much it hurt and also my dad, who I can’t even NOT bring up in my eulogy for my mom, also Dolie. I sure do wish she had gotten to know me as an adult. We would have so much to talk about.

I loved them all more than life itself.

I want to thank all of you for showing up to celebrate my mom’s life and resurrection.

Thank you Milestone for the wonderful loving care you have given my mother in her last days as well as my dad’s Natasha, Tony and Pauline. I love all of you and all the people I know that are here and the people that could not make it.

I want to thank all of you who visited her and called and sent cards, Marion, Nell, Caroline, Dorothy, Joyce. Y’all will never even know how much your caring means to me.

Bill King, you are unbelievable, what a good man you are, thank you. Thank you Pastor David, Betsy and her heart and cookies, Bobby, Jack Portofield, Chicky, Judy, Barbara, Hal and my cousins. Thanks to Sandy who is my best girlfriend, a sister and life long friend, Alan, my dear college friend, thank you for always being there for me and LeAnne I known you have always been there for me when I needed you. So many more I don’t even know for sure, y’all are in my heart forever and I love you.

And last but not least, Jack. He’s my knight in shining armor. He’s been there for me and my mom and dad the entire time. Dad told Jack to take care of his girls and Jack surely did even more and beyond. And over 3 years ago before all this happened. What a sweetheart.

They were such good parents to me and I will admit this has been so difficult even with my strong faith that I am blessed to have, I know I will get stronger everyday with my loving fiancé, Jack, my dear friends and my Faith in God.

I love you so much Mom. I will miss you until the day we all meet again. In the mean time, I hold a heavy heart filled with love for you.

-Written by Linda Jones