The family of Maude H. Jones, a Rock Springs Elementary School paraprofessional who died earlier this month of COVID-19, is holding memorial service 11 a.m. Saturday that the public can watch online.
Only 50 family members will be attending the service in person at Gregory B. Levett & Sons Funeral Home in Lawrenceville. Everyone else may access the live stream by going to levettfuneralhome.com and clicking “Funerals & Obituaries” to find Jones’ name. On a laptop or desktop computer, the live stream can be found on Jones’ page under the “Photos & Videos” tab. On a mobile device, tap “Media.”
The video will go live at 10:50 a.m.
When the service begins, the time will be 4 p.m. in Liberia, where Jones immigrated from and still has relatives.
Jones died Jan. 4 at age 64. She worked since 2006 as a paraprofessional for Gwinnett County Public Schools, where this school year employees have been reporting to school buildings and about half of the students have been learning in classrooms.
Jones decided in November to retire early, after the fall semester ended, because she was concerned about rising COVID-19 cases, her family said.
Two weeks before what would have been her last day at school, Jones was identified as a close contact of a co-worker with COVID-19 and sent home to quarantine, her family said. She tested positive for the coronavirus a few days later and her condition deteriorated until her death, according to her family.
Jones lived in Lawrenceville, as do her three adult children: Henry, Nyenneh and Togar. She is also survived by nine grandchildren, three siblings and extended family members in Lawrenceville, across the United States and around the world.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in public administration from the University of Liberia before immigrating to Staten Island, N.Y. and later moving to Lawrenceville. She was a devout member of Christ the King Church in Dacula, but only attended online after the coronavirus hit.
Jones’ relatives said she reacted to the pandemic with caution, avoiding social gatherings and only occasionally grocery shopping. She sewed colorful masks for family and friends to encourage mask wearing.
“She was a very lively person,” her daughter Nyenneh Jones told the AJC. “She was happy all the time. She loved people.”
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