Category: Reflections (2018-present)

It was 25 years ago today – March 4, 1997 – that Daddy called me, around 1:30 in the afternoon, and said three words: “Bill, she’s gone.” Mother had struggled with various ailments in the years before that – a bursitis attack in September 1992, followed by a stroke that November, and then a bacterial Read more . . .

It was 60 years ago today – February 20, 1962 – that astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. For decades now, women and men have flown into outer space on missions – especially trips to and from the International Space Station – with little to no fanfare. Oh, there have Read more . . .

(Scroll to the end for links to my previous 12 blog tributes to Joanna since her passing.) It was this Saturday last year – on the last weekend of January – that Joanna and I received the phone call from the transplant institute, notifying us that a kidney was available and that Joanna was 1st Read more . . .

(Scroll to the end for links to my previous 11 blog tributes to Joanna since her passing.) Over the past year, I’ve often been counseled, by friends who have experienced deep grief in their own lives, to journal my feelings regularly. Some have advised that this would be helpful to me, in time, to look Read more . . .

I just finished writing my column “A word from Bill Jones,” followed by proofreading of every last word and every last link in the last-ever issue – # 500 – of my Weekly Baptist Roundup e-newsletter. Every link but one, that is. I want to use this blog post to jot down a few reflections Read more . . .

(Scroll to the end for links to my previous 10 blog tributes to Joanna since her passing.) There is much in life that is a matter of perspective, much that is open to interpretation, subject to our personal experience and understanding. For instance, as much as many of us would like to enforce our religious Read more . . .

To my Weekly Baptist Roundup family, The Weekly Baptist Roundup issue of Saturday, December 18, 2021, will be issue no. 500. That number is hard for me to fathom, but it represents 10-1/2 years – except for a 10-month “hiatus” after Texas Baptists Committed ended operations in August 2017. In May 2018, I told Joanna that Read more . . .

(Scroll to the end for links to my previous 9 blog tributes to Joanna since her passing.) This time of year – Thanksgiving week and the days following – have had an extra-special meaning for our family through the years. This year, Travis’s birthday – November 25 – fell on Thanksgiving Day. He turned 36. Read more . . .

(Scroll down for links to my previous 8 blog tributes to Joanna since her passing.) Joanna passed away 9 months ago today on Feb. 14. Somehow, the days, weeks, and months keep moving along, and I keep half-expecting to see Joanna “reappear” around every corner I turn, even though I know that’s not going to Read more . . .

Forty years ago tonight – October 7, 1981, Joanna and I were celebrating my promotion to management as a supervisor with Mountain Bell Telephone Company in Denver. It was an exciting time, a meaningful achievement. So how did I get to that point? When I was in college, being a manager/supervisor with the phone company Read more . . .