Mom
Comments (0) 
Janet’s mom Shirley Jones passed on Thursday, July 8 after several battles with injuries – knees, both hips, getting run over by a golf cart in 2002 – and other maladies.
I met Shirley in 1966 when Janet invited a bunch of us swimming pool brats over for BLTs and soda. Teenagers can consume great piles of bacon, and we did. One thing led to another, I started dating Janet in 1967, and Mom kept feeding me for years. I didn’t start calling her “Mom” until after my own mother passed suddenly in 1970, and I was grateful that she let me do it even though Janet and I didn’t marry until 1975.
I never remember her being angry or upset with me, even when I dumped her carefully iced pastries upside down on the kitchen floor, or flipped a pancake onto her electric stove burner the day she was leaving on a trip. I am sure in the past 4o+ years I have committed many more offenses for which she should have scolded me, but I never heard it from her. On the contrary, she was always gracious and loving to me.
If you knew Shirley, we’re having a gathering to remember her and celebrate her life at the Village Chapel in Greenspring, near 7418 Spring Village Drive in Springfield, on Wednesday, July 21 at 1:00 PM with a few refreshments afterwards. Let me know if you are thinking of coming and I can email you a parking pass.
Themocracy