Mom's funeral was very comforting. All the children and most of the grandchildren were able to be present, as well as a full contigent of the Putnam clan. Harry did a wonderful talk about Mom and the music by George and Anna, Amy and Pat, and Sharon Polk was beautiful. Especially touching was the bond of friendship evidenced by Lillian Walter, Ada Miller, and vicariously through her children, Beth Karn.
The obituary read:
Hazel C. Jones 87, Fort Wayne, Indiana and longtime Rochester, Indiana
resident, passed away at 6:50 P.M. Saturday August 2, 2008 at the Visiting Nurse and Hospice Home in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
She was born on January 11, 1921 in Shiawassee County, Michigan, the daughter of George Dewey and Louise (Remus) Putnam. Her family is a decendant of a survivor of the 1690 Schenectady, New York Massacre. On May 10, 1947 in Lainsburg, Michigan she married George S. Jones. He preceded her in death on January 10, 1998.
Mrs. Jones was a graduate of Blodgett Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in
Grand Rapids, Michigan. After nursing school, she served as a 2nd Lt. in the U.S. Army Nursing Corp. stationed in Great Britain during World War II. Returning to the United States after the war, she worked as a Registered Nurse for a doctor's office in Grand Rapids, Michigan and worked for over twenty years as a Registered Nurse at Woodlawn Hospital, Rochester, Indiana before retiring.
Mrs. Jones was a member of the Trinity United Methodist Church, United Methodist Women, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, all of Rochester, Indiana, and had been a Cub Scout Den Mother for many years. She enjoyed cooking and entertaining family and friends.
Survivors include her daughter, Janet and husband Terry Meyer, Roseburg, Oregon, sons, Harry O. and wife Linda Jones, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Dewey George and wife Sue Jones, Marquette, Michigan, Richard P. and wife Kathy Jones, Duluth, Georgia, John A. Jones, Rochester, Indiana, eighteen grandchildren, thirty great grandchildren, brother, Colonel (Ret.) John Dewey and wife Luella Putnam, Oscoda, Michigan, brother-in-law, Jack Smith, Litchfield, Michigan, and sister in laws Grace Putnam of Laingsburg, Mi and Jean Putnam of Lansing, Mi.
She was preceded in death by her son, Tyler S. Jones, grandson, Jacob Meyer, brothers, Dale Remus Putnam, Richard Keith Putnam, Robert Frederick Putnam, and sister, Linda Lou Smith.
resident, passed away at 6:50 P.M. Saturday August 2, 2008 at the Visiting Nurse and Hospice Home in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
She was born on January 11, 1921 in Shiawassee County, Michigan, the daughter of George Dewey and Louise (Remus) Putnam. Her family is a decendant of a survivor of the 1690 Schenectady, New York Massacre. On May 10, 1947 in Lainsburg, Michigan she married George S. Jones. He preceded her in death on January 10, 1998.
Mrs. Jones was a graduate of Blodgett Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in
Grand Rapids, Michigan. After nursing school, she served as a 2nd Lt. in the U.S. Army Nursing Corp. stationed in Great Britain during World War II. Returning to the United States after the war, she worked as a Registered Nurse for a doctor's office in Grand Rapids, Michigan and worked for over twenty years as a Registered Nurse at Woodlawn Hospital, Rochester, Indiana before retiring.
Mrs. Jones was a member of the Trinity United Methodist Church, United Methodist Women, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, all of Rochester, Indiana, and had been a Cub Scout Den Mother for many years. She enjoyed cooking and entertaining family and friends.
Survivors include her daughter, Janet and husband Terry Meyer, Roseburg, Oregon, sons, Harry O. and wife Linda Jones, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Dewey George and wife Sue Jones, Marquette, Michigan, Richard P. and wife Kathy Jones, Duluth, Georgia, John A. Jones, Rochester, Indiana, eighteen grandchildren, thirty great grandchildren, brother, Colonel (Ret.) John Dewey and wife Luella Putnam, Oscoda, Michigan, brother-in-law, Jack Smith, Litchfield, Michigan, and sister in laws Grace Putnam of Laingsburg, Mi and Jean Putnam of Lansing, Mi.
She was preceded in death by her son, Tyler S. Jones, grandson, Jacob Meyer, brothers, Dale Remus Putnam, Richard Keith Putnam, Robert Frederick Putnam, and sister, Linda Lou Smith.
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The minister had asked us to send him remembrances, then did not use them. He gave a time for folks to share stories, but I thought the service had gone long enough at that point. Here is what I sent him:
My most poignant memories of Mom are as a compassionate healer. I remember in the years when she was a homemaker before she returned to work as a nurse, there was a family who had several of the children burned in a house fire. I was not aware that we had any connection to them through church or social contact, but Mom visited them daily in the hospital and took some of us kids along to try to comfort them.
Another remembrance is how devastated she was coming home from the hospital one morning after working futilely to save a young girl's life following a bus accident.
Epitomizing her compassion was her loving care of her mother in law and mother in the their final stages of life. Dad's mom had a series of strokes that left her very dependent physically and mentally. Mom cared without complaint for her in our home until her final stroke. Gramma Louise was as uncomplaining as Mom. She came to the nursing home in Rochester for her final months and Mom felt blessed to be able to care for her mother in her last days.
In fulfilling her roles as wife and mother, you couldn't say she was tireless, but she labored on no matter how tired and overtaxed she was. After working all night as the nursing supervisor at the hospital, she would arrange her sleep schedule around the needs of the family and community usually to the detriment of getting adequate rest.
In addition to the great satisfaction that came to her from her work as a nurse, Mom reveled in her family. Holiday were not just occasions for a meal together, they were occasions for the whole family, and not just for the family, but for any friends of family members who were in the area. These were very important to her and not to be denied. I remember her solution when commitment to "the other side of the family" precluded everyone from being together on Thanksgiving: "That's fine, we'll meet here for the post-Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday after Thanksgiving Day."
A life of healing, a life of caring, a life of labor, a life of love, a life well lived.
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Here is an additional memory that illustrates her legendary ability to put out a banquet on short notice:
One Sunday evening while we were living in Logansport, I had to run up to Rochester to deliver something and took the boys along. There were snow flurries as we left, but heavy snow when we reached Fulton. Thinking I would excite Andrew and Alex's minds with the possibility of missing school the next day, I asked, "What if we get snowed in at Gramma Hazel's house?" Alex, with his pithy insight, replied, "Then we'll have a feast."
One Sunday evening while we were living in Logansport, I had to run up to Rochester to deliver something and took the boys along. There were snow flurries as we left, but heavy snow when we reached Fulton. Thinking I would excite Andrew and Alex's minds with the possibility of missing school the next day, I asked, "What if we get snowed in at Gramma Hazel's house?" Alex, with his pithy insight, replied, "Then we'll have a feast."
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