A local legacy lives on

By NOREEN HYSLOP

Managing Editor

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - When Larry Jones died seven months ago after a brief, but valiant, battle with cancer, he couldn't have known how his legacy would carry on.

Jones died just 11 days shy of his 39th wedding anniversary. He and his wife, Kathy, lived on a farm north of Bloomfield, where they raised corn, beans, wheat, rice, and three children.

Always known in the area as an honest, hard-working gentleman, his family never knew the depth of his kindness until after he was gone.

"It was at Larry's visitation," his widow explains, "that the kids and I really realized the impact he'd had on the community and in so many lives."

As hundreds of people stood in line to offer their condolences on the night of March 16, 2011, Kathy Jones and her children were told over and over of stories involving acts of kindness that involved Larry Jones.

Although they knew their husband and father to be a kind-hearted man who was always willing to help a friend in need, they couldn't have imagined just how far-reaching his acts of kindness had gone.

"People came through that line and told us of times Larry stopped to help them change a tire, or fix a truck, or pull them out of a ditch. There was just story after story of how Larry was always lending a hand and he would never, ever take anything in return."

So struck were they by the accounts of friends and strangers at their father's visitation, the three Jones children told their mother that night they wanted to respond.

"The kids came to me after visitation and said they had to let their daddy keep helping people. They couldn't let that stop."

It wasn't long before the children of Larry and Kathy Jones, Lora, Sara and Kyle, established the H.O.P.E. campaign. The name, Kathy says, stands for everything their father believed in and represented - Healing, Optimism, Prayer and Example.

The money initially placed into the H.O.P.E. fund stemmed from contributions made in honor of Larry Jones following his untimely death at the age of 57.

"Larry planned ahead and had an adequate life insurance policy," Kathy says, "and when people sent money in lieu of flowers, I was able to place that money in the bank."

Over the next few months, more money was added through some unique contributions. When their father's birthday came in April and Father's Day in June, the children placed the money they would have typically spent on gifts into the H.O.P.E. account. Through word of mouth, others did the same and continued to give in memory of their kind neighbor and good friend.

Kathy Jones, a retired special education teacher who survived breast cancer in the late 1990s, watched the fund grow, and while still reeling from the loss of her husband of nearly four decades, she learned during a routine doctor's visit that her cancer had returned. She had beaten an only 10 percent chance of survival in 1999 through chemotherapy, surgery, a stem cell transplant, radiation, and most importanly, she says, prayer and the support of family and friends.

Now the Jones' world was about to be rocked to its core once again

"While Larry was undergoing treatment in February, I had a checkup and was told my tumor markers were a little elevated," she explains.

That elevation continued, and just two weeks following the loss of her husband, doctors informed Kathy she had metastatic breast cancer, likely "reactivated" as a result of the stress she had been under in dealing with the death of her husband. The cancer had spread to her spine and bones.

Since April, Kathy has been on a drug called Femara. She takes it orally daily and also travels to Cape Girardeau once each month to receive an injection of Zometa, prescribed to strengthen her bones.

"Since my cancer is estrogen-fed, and the Femara is a hormone blocker," she explains, "I'll be taking it the rest of my life."

Yet, the optimism she shared with her husband brings her to say she's blessed - blessed with a son, not quite 23, who has taken over the job of his father before him, farming close to 1,500 acres. And she is blessed, she says, with two daughters, one in Jackson and one just down the road from the Jones farm, who have supported her in every way.

It was her daughter, Lora, who decided in September to further her mother's cause and have t-shirts made, emblazoned with "Kickin' Cancer with Kathy."

"We stared this primarily as a way to show support for mom," explains Lora Galati. "But she insists she's fine and has encouraged us to give the proceeds to the H.O.P.E. campaign."

Although the dollar figures are not yet in, the "Kickin' Cancer" t-shirts and an event linked to the promotion which took place in the Bloomfield City Park on Oct. 8, have raised some hefty funds for the family's fundraising efforts.

It wasn't difficult to establish a plan to utilize funds raised through the H.O.P.E. campaign. With only a few months having passed following the loss of their father, the Jones children began distributing money, in increments of $300, to area cancer patients. Thus far, 13 families facing the financial challenges that come with a cancer diagnosis have directly benefited from a H.O.P.E. love offering.

And so, through the work of his wife and children, a part of Larry Jones lives on through the giving nature that he taught them by his own quiet example. So numerous were his own good deeds, his family members will likely never know how many lives he touched. And that's just the way he would have preferred it to be.