JONES, Kathleen (Kay) Mildred

March 8, 1931 – Castor, Alberta
March 7, 2017 – Calgary, Alberta
Our dear wife, mother, grand and great grandmother passed away after a brief struggle with cancer, one day short of her 86th birthday. The February 2017 diagnosis was not her first skirmish with cancer. In her young adult life, she studied, played piano and danced, first in Vancouver and later, in Calgary, before marrying her partner of 66 years, Howard. In her 24th year and, with three small children, Kay was living a remote and rustic ranch life north of Medicine Hat, where, at that time, home was accessed mainly by a tri weekly train. In her words, the train tried weekly to run. It was at this time she received her first cancer diagnosis. With this harsh welcome to her mid twenties, she learned stoicism, fortitude and sprinkled these with humor, in her determination to remain on this earth. In the book she later wrote, Kay asserted that her diagnoses would not and did not, determine her future. After subsequent diagnoses, she still saw herself as lucky. Kay wrote about her gratitude in seeing her four children grow up, her ten grandchildren reach adulthood and spoke of her joy when her great grandson reached school age. In spite of conceding to new diagnoses, rounds of treatments and recovery, she juggled the demands of ranch life and raising a family and later anticipated the arrival of each grandchild, greeting each with the same excitement as the one before. She sewed, knitted, baked cookies and, as these children grew, planned family dinners and celebrations, camping trips and bird watching walks.
Her joy in life came from her acts of kindness towards everyone she knew and, she would undoubtedly add, one of her favorite gatherings, Happy Hour with wine. In her recent and tenth diagnosis of cancer, Kay would like her family and her friends to know she chose no treatment; she chose acceptance and comfort. She had, in her words, beaten the odds, had lived nine lives with the support of her family, all she could possibly want. Kay is survived by her children Ron Jones and wife Judy Harvie, Terry Jones and husband Lorne McEwen, Kim Jones and wife Patricia, Jeannette Jones and partner Kevin Bowes; grandchildren Lindsay (Brad), Logan, Danielle (Mark), Charlotte, Alicia, Julia, Christopher, Rainer, Jackson, Taryn and one great-grandson Roran. A private Happy Hour celebrating her life took place Friday, March 10th. Condolences may be forwarded through www.mcinnisandholloway.com. If friends so desire, memorial tributes may be made directly to the Alberta Cancer Foundation, Provincial Office, Sun Life Place, 710, 10123 – 99th Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 3H1 Telephone: 1(866) 412-4222. https://albertacancer.ca.