For 25 years she taught families. She taught ways to create and
maintain a home environment conducive for healthy, safe interactions and growth for all family members. Most her work was
with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
(DCFS), but she was also an advocate for services for families
who “fell through the cracks.”
These families’ problems weren’t severe enough to need
DCFS intervention, but at the same time, they could not afford
family counseling. She had a heart for grandparents who needed
support to cope with the unexpected responsibility of raising
grandchildren because a parent was missing in action because of
drugs, jail or abandonment.
Mom definitely had a zeal for family connectedness. To her,
the words were synonymous. As a matter-of-fact, the words
family, love, and connectedness were interchangeable. She believed families were meant to be together. She coordinated family “round-ups”, family praise and worship events, and would
honor a family-of-the-month at our church. My father shared
her zeal and together they spread a family message to family,
friends, and the church communities across the country and
abroad.
I can remember a parent from one of her parenting classes
challenging her beliefs about family. The parent told her that
family wasn’t all she was making it out to be. The parent
spewed, “Everybody didn’t grow up in a magical family like
you. What do you know about family hard times?”
Without batting an eye, she told him what she knew about
family hard times. When she was done, he realized he’d had it
better growing up than she did.
Many people didn’t realize that her passion for family was
forged through the adversities of her childhood.
She was the youngest of seven children born to Emma Lou
Stowe Chatman Jones. Grandma’s maiden name was Stowe
and she had two children by her first husband. She had five
children by her second husband, Thomas J. Jones, and my
mother was the youngest. Her parents divorced when she was a
Fall/Winter 2013 The Well Magazine
17