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Note: My Mother, Flora Nell Jones By Wayne Nielsen Written 12/2002
My mother is a very pragmatic individual, who is fiercely loyal and protective of those close to her. Mom has always been concerned and focused on the feelings of her family - often forgoing her own comfort or convenience so that she can serve us. One of mom's primary goals in life is to not disappoint us.
Mom is a wonderful cook - she's one of "those Southern cooks" that doesn't need a book to cook by. Some of my favorite foods that she can magically "whip up" are chicken and dumplings, fried okra and tomatoes, and the simple Southern Hoe Cake (pan fried corn bread). Anything that mom cooks is delicious. Even her macaroni and cheese - with a bizarre addition of tomatoes - is a memorable treat.
Mom is forward thinking and a realist. She rarely (that we know of) "looks back". Mom was the moral teacher of the family. She took the time to make sure that I was trained up with proper Christian values and behaviors. She does have quite a sense of humor that can take on a "perverse" tone from time to time. I'm sure that her eyes sparkled when she asked if I knew who wrote the book "The Tomcat's Revenge" - of course, it was Claude Balls.
During most of my childhood mom worked outside of the home as a Medical Secretary or Transcriptionist - not out of her own "career goals", but out of necessity. She was very generous and attentive with me. When I was in my teens she would pick me up once a week on her lunch break (in the little side street near our house on Fort King Street) and take me to lunch at Morrison's Cafeteria.
Mom wasn't afraid of much. She enjoyed riding motorcycles. She was even known to attempt to chase down armadillos, and had no problem picking up snakes in the woods. Her one uncontrollable fear was of roaches. Occasionally, the air would be pierced with her shrieks. When this happened, we knew there was a terrified roach running from my mother.
My mother is one of those rare individuals who is idealized as the model mother - protective and devoted to her children. She is the "genuine article". Even with her slight build in my childhood, I always felt safe and secure when mom was around.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mom's Eulogy
Eulogy - January 14, 2007 Flora J. Link
Flora Nell Jones-Link was born June 2, 1926. She was raised in Lakeland, Florida, with three sisters and a brother, amid orange groves and strawberry fields. Flora, or "Flo" as her friends called her, grew up through the great depression and suffered from Rheumatic Fever when she was 14 years old. As she once put it, "this greatly limited my life as a teenager for quite some time". Perhaps it was this trial along with "hard times", and the loving spiritual guidance of her parents, that helped to polish Flo into one of Christ's precious jewels.
Flo would often recount good memories of her childhood. Her father, Samuel Porter Jones was a schoolteacher, Methodist preacher, truck farmer, and a carpenter in the Tampa shipyards during WWII, and a prolific writer. Flo recalls her mother, Mary "Gladys" Jones "singing like a bird" around the house. "She made you feel secure", she would add, and "was a good cook".
Flo fondly recalled as a child, walking into the bakery in Lakeland to purchase the "scraps" trimmed from the cakes that were to be decorated and sold. These precious sweet slivers of yellow cake would be taken home and served under fresh strawberries grown in her father's garden - often picked by Flo and her siblings. And of course, topped with the cream donated by the family cow.
Flo inherited her father's love of words and ability to write. In 1941, while in high school, she was awarded first prize in an essay contest, "High School Students' Contribution to Victory," sponsored by the Lakeland chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Later in life, Flo would grow up to become a medical transcriptionist, and was known for her lightening typing speed, and extensive vocabulary.
Flo also had a knack for winning contests. One of her proud moments was winning a contest long ago, during one hot summer week when a large block of ice was placed in the street, with the challenge of guessing how long it would take to melt. Amazing how she knew that! She always listened to a radio program in the morning while we were getting ready to go to school. They had a trivia contest, which Mom seemed to win rather regularly.
Flo joined the Seventh-day Adventist church in 1950. For many years she served her church in various capacities, including church treasurer.
Flora has been blessed with two children, four grandchildren, and 10 great grandsons.
Her son Wayne, writing in 2002, described his mother this way:
My mother is a very pragmatic individual, who is fiercely loyal and protective of those close to her. Mom has always been concerned and focused on the feelings of her family - often forgoing her own comfort or convenience so that she can serve us. One of mom's primary goals in life is to not disappoint us.
Mom is a wonderful cook - she's one of "those Southern cooks" that doesn't need a book to cook by. Some of my favorite foods that she can magically "whip up" are chicken and dumplings, fried okra and tomatoes, and the simple Southern Hoe Cake (pan fried corn bread). Anything that mom cooks is delicious. Even her macaroni and cheese - with a bizarre addition of tomatoes - is a memorable treat.
Mom is forward thinking and a realist. She took the time to make sure that I was trained up with proper Christian values and behaviors.
During most of my childhood mom worked outside of the home as a Medical Secretary or Transcriptionist - not because of her "career goals", but out of necessity. She was very generous and attentive with me.
Mom wasn't afraid of much. She enjoyed riding motorcycles. She was even known to attempt to chase down armadillos, and had no problem picking up snakes in the woods. Her one uncontrollable fear was of roaches. Occasionally, the air would be pierced with her shrieks. When this happened, we knew there was a terrified roach running from my mother.
My mother is one of those rare individuals who is idealized as the model mother - protective and devoted to her children. She is the "genuine article". Even with her slight build in my childhood, I always felt safe and secure when mom was around.
Kathy, Flo's daughter, describes her mother as an individual who loved her children passionately. I (Kathy) was never spanked, and I think that was even before the days of Dr. Spock. Mama always just said, "WE don't do that. There were no written rules in our house, but she wrote on our hearts the principles of right and wrong and encouraged us always to "do the right thing".
Just as Mama loved to write, she also loved to read and felt that the gift of reading was one of the greatest gifts she could give to her children. I was taken every Thursday evening to the Lakeland, Florida library from age 5 until I went to Forest Lake Academy. With her coaching, I learned to read before I entered school, and the librarian allowed me to take home 8 books per week - twice the normal amount of 4 books. Mama felt that books held innumerable treasures and told me that though there might be a day when I had few material possessions, the things I learned from my books could never be taken away. Here is a little poem she kept on the inside of her kitchen cabinet for as long as I can remember:
I Had A Mother Who Read to Me
You may have tangible wealth untold, Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold; Richer than I you can never be I had a mother who read to me.
Mama was fun, interested in everything, and the perfect mother for me. She loved horses and so did I. By the time I was 5 years old, she and I both had a horse and we loved to go riding on the weekends. She could make slingshots out of a strip of inner tube, an old-fashioned clothespin, and the leather tongue of a shoe. Her aim was unbelievable. We would sit on the edge of the carport at dusk when the bats would come out, flying low to catch the various insects. She taught me how to use small white rocks with our homemade slingshots to decrease the bat population in our area.
We would take walks in a large Florida swamp not far from our house. When we had gone several hundred feet into the middle of the swamp, it was as if we had gone back 300 years in history. We would pretend we were Indians, jumping from one Cyprus root to another. Once I slipped into a mud bog. She used a stick to pull me out, but I did lose a cowboy boot. She could always catch fish on Lake Gibson, which was just behind our house. She knew all the snakes and "critters" in the area, teaching me the poisonous from the non-poisonous. Life was an adventure with Mama.
My mother loved her sisters and brother, along with their children. I can remember many memorable get-togethers with my cousins, especially Debbie, Phyllis, and Sharon who have stayed close to my mother all her life. During her recent illness, Debbie, who is an LPN, came up and stayed several days and nights with my mother, providing loving care in Mama's final days. Incidentally, Mama helped Debbie pay for her LPN schooling a few years ago. This illustrates that as the scriptures tell us, "Cast your bread upon the waters, and it shall return unto you."
I am so thankful for the Seventh-day Adventist Christian education my mother provided from the 4th grade through college. My folks were not wealthy people, and it was a real sacrifice for them to pay for my schooling. Today I recognize even more than ever how important God's educational plan is for his little ones - a Seventh-day Adventist Christian home, a Seventh-day Adventist Christian school, and a Seventh-day Adventist Church.
In 1951, Flo lost her mother to ovarian cancer. On January 12, 2007, ovarian cancer took Flo from us. She now sleeps, waiting on the trumpet call of her beloved Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
We can imagine the joy on my mother's face when she awakes from her earthly sleep, surrounded by her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and many of her other family members to meet Christ at His coming, knowing that our family will forever be together.
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1940 United States Federal Census about Flora Jones
Name: Flora Jones
Age: 14
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1926
Gender: Female
Race: White
Birthplace: Florida
Marital Status: Single
Relation to Head of House: Daughter
Home in 1940: Lakeland, Polk, Florida View Map
Street: Edgewood Drive
Inferred Residence in 1935: Lakeland, Polk, Florida
Residence in 1935: Same House
Sheet Number: 2A
Attended School or College: Yes
Highest Grade Completed: Elementary school, 8th grade
Income Other Sources: No
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members:
Name Age
Sam Jones 52
Mary Jones 47
Zada Jones 22
Flora Jones 14
Betty Jones 10
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