For anyone who grew up in the church, you know that “Youth Group” is a right of passage for teens. As a church kid myself, I spent so many years looking up to these older kids, anxiously awaiting the day that I would be one of them.
When I was 10, my family moved to another state. It took another year for my parents to find the church they wanted to belong to. So there I was. A very awkward 11 year old, about to start something I’d waited my entire, young life for, in a place where I literally knew no one. This was not at all how it was supposed to go.
Amber was 18 at the time. She must have been just out of high school and was volunteering as a leader in my church’s jr high youth group. She welcomed me with open arms. Every time I came to group, I went directly to her. Her love and acceptance was overflowing at a time when I needed it more than anything. I soaked it all up. She was my light in a storm I didn’t know how to navigate. I honestly can’t even describe what her just being there meant for that scared little girl, who just wanted to be cared for.
I didn’t know it at the time, but I would become best friends with her little sister Cait, and would end up spending many of my formidable years running around her house while she was back and forth from college finding her way in the world, almost like the big sister I never had. I cherish those memories.
Amber Michelle Jones passed away suddenly last year, of a heart defect, on her 41st birthday. I still can’t believe she’s gone.
She was a shining light for me at the time when I had no one, and needed it so badly, and I know there were so many others like me that were touched by her loving kindness. I lost touch with her over the years, but I know that she adopted a sweet young girl, and gave her a loving home, and this warms my heart to no end. She also had something like 5 dogs. Her heart was so big. Her compassion was unmatched. She would give up anything she had to help someone. My heart breaks at the thought of living in a world that doesn’t have her in it, but I feel blessed to have known her, and I’ll try to be like her every day of my life. I’ll love you forever Amber. I’ll never forget you ❤️
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