Help support efforts to inter my disabled brother & mom

In memory of John Michael Jones 1946 - 2023

In memory of Mildred 'Joan' Jones 1924 - 2024

Help raise burial expenses so I can not only honor a promise to my disabled brother, but also inter both he & mother with dignity.

On October 28, 2023, my older (and only sibling) brother John Michael "Mike" Jones passed away unexpectedly and without notification at the age of 77 at Novant Hospital in Winston Salem, NC. He was a resident of Orlando, Florida for most his adult life. Mike was a member of the First Congregational Church of Winter Park, Florida and was very close with many of the Pastors.

On March 14, 2024, our mother, Mildred "Joan" Jones passed away at the age of 99; three months short of her 100th birthday at Walnut Cove Rehabilitation Center. She lived, worked, and volunteered most of her adult life in Orlando, Florida. She was also a member of the First Congregational Church of Winter Park, Florida. They were both preceded in death by my father, Ray Eugene Jones, in 2010. My father was both a WWII Navy Veteran and later served in the Air Force Reserves.

This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do - reach out for donations to have to lay my own mother and brother to rest. I have no immediate family. It has taken me this long to get up the courage to ask for help, but unknown to anyone in the family, including myself, my mother cancelled all life insurance benefits and sold back all caskets and vaults to the funeral home.

My brother’s is a special request. There are many emotions of grief & guilt. Mike was born with a brain injury at birth. The damage was primarily to the left frontal lobe - where emotions and inhibitions and controlled. His emotional age varied during life/aging, of an 8-year-old. By the time I came along 12 years later, his behavior was violent and already in need of a controlled environment where none still exists. It was all simply experimenting with medications.

The real tragedy of my brother's life is that he brother KNEW he wasn't 'normal.' He would constantly ask mom, "Will I be normal in the next life?" And as long as I can remember, he asked me "Will you always protect me?" My reply was, "Of course."

So in the end, when he needed me the MOST, when he was dying, that promise was broken. I cannot imagine his confusion and fright. Dying with no family to hold his hand. The very least I can do for my brother is to give him the dignity of a proper memorial, burial and marker. Please help me give him that. And our mother - she was his world, and he was hers. She was only human, with human faults, but she did her best to devote her life to walk his difficult life with him.

Thank you and Bless you.