Joy Diane Harmon Jones

I spent the day with my mother on campus today. The purpose: my mother, Joy Diane Harmon Jones, is thinking about returning to college to finish her Bachelor degree. We met with two different advisers and learned what it would take for her to return and get that valuable piece of paper.

Something I learned in our hours of conversation together, was that she has spent the last 32 years of her life dedicating every second to a husband, who she loves more than anything, and her five children. Everything in her being has been for us. She gave up finishing her education so that she could fulfill her ultimate purpose: being a wife and a mother and raising her children to be intelligent, independent, spiritual beings with their own testimonies of their Savior Jesus Christ and the Heavenly Father. She wanted nothing more than to see us grow up and understand who we truly are and what our potential is. Now, almost 32 years later, she has three of five children graduated from BYU, one who will graduate in three months, another who will graduate in about four years, four returned missionaries, one child who spent a semester in Jerusalem studying the Savior's life, three children-in-law, nine grandchildren and a testimony that will bring anyone to tears.

She has given everything.

It is her time now.

Remember the feeling of the first day of freshman year on campus? Walking onto campus and experiencing that magical feeling that only exists during the first couple days of Fall semester? Ya, that magic was here today - embodied in my mother. Tears filled her eyes a few times as we talked about different possibilities and options for her returning to school, as well as the blessings that would come from this. She has been blessed for giving the last 32 years to her family, and not that that was a sacrifice. She chose that and that was what she wanted most. She wouldn't give it up for anything. It's just that now that that time has passed and almost all of her children are married off and mostly independent, she has a little more time on her hands and she wants to use it wisely.

Joy Diane Harmon Jones is one of the most phenomenal women that lives on this earth. I know that everyone reading this post right is slightly biased toward their own mothers, and I completely understand that. But, I just have to say how much I love my mother who also plays the roles of my best friend, hero, example and confidant.

Good luck Mama!