Donna went to rest high
on that mountain with Jesus May 14, 2001 Born out of love, died with
love. She lives forever in our hearts!
If you knew her;
think about her for a moment or two, then scroll down.
"Do not
go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path... and
leave a trail" Ralph Waldo
Emerson
"About 6
months before she passed away she had that Don't Worry, Be
Happy Smile that we all remember. She
had that same smile on her face the moment she went to
Jesus."
This is a Father's Day card she gave me when she was very
young.... notice the hearts she drew on the word
Dad!
This was her doorway to
Heaven, Camden General Hospital, Camden, Tennessee. My
Heartfelt thanks and best wishes to Dr. Jon Winter and all the
staff who cared for her while she awaited her journey to
heaven.
Donna with Her Sons, Jody and
Johnathan
Faith Matters BY DAVID WATERS
It is written, Jody; love is something you can
understand
CAMDEN, Tenn.
- A few months ago, Jody's mother wrote a
short letter and gave it to keep.
Donna
Joe Allen knew her youngest son couldn't read the letter. Jody, a
fourth-grader, can talk a blue streak but he
can't read or write. He has a language
disorder.
Jody's brain has trouble
processing information. Explaining something to
him takes a lot of time. It works better if
you show him rather than just tell
him.
So, Donna Joe always tried to show
her Jody what she was talking about.
If
she was telling him about love, she showed him with a hug and a
kiss.
If she was telling him about
baseball, she took him outside and showed him how to hit a ball with
a bat.
If she was telling him about God,
she showed him by closing her eyes, pressing her hands together and
saying a prayer.
Jody watched and
listened, but it's never easy to tell what he truly remembers and
understands.
A few months ago, Jody was
having a lot of trouble understanding what his mother was telling and
showing him.
For weeks, Jody had watched
his mother go to the doctor and to the
hospital. He had watched her sick and in pain. He had watched her take
medicine. He had seen the IVs and the tubes
and the morphine pump.
For weeks, Jody had
listened to his mother explaining it all to him
carefully. Donna Joe had told him about the
cancer and what it was doing to her body. She
had told him about living and dying. She had told him about God and
heaven.
Then she gave him the
letter.
She knew that she wouldn't always
be there to tell him and show him how she
felt about him, how grateful she was to be his
mother.
She also knew that if Jody
couldn't read the letter, someone else could read it to
him.
She also knew that, even if his brain
couldn't process the information, his heart
could. Jody may be small for his age, but he has a big
heart.
Jody must have realized something
then. At Christmas, Donna Joe took Jody to
see Santa. Jody asked Santa to bring his mother an
angel.
"Because I love her," Jody
explained.
After Christmas, Donna Joe got
weaker and weaker, but she kept at it.
She
kept telling Jody that his father, Jay, and his grandmother, Judy,
would be there to take care of him. She kept
telling him that his big brother, John, would
be there to watch out for him.
One day,
Jody's mother took him to the Mt. Carmel Cemetery. She showed him
Cody's grave. Cody, her second child, died in
1988 three days after he was born.
She
explained that even though she couldn't see Cody anymore, Cody
always was with her in her mind and her
heart.
Then she showed Jody the patch of
ground right next to Cody's grave. She
explained that after she died, this is where her body would be
buried. She showed him the little sign and
read it to him: "Reserved for Donna Joe Allen," it
said.
She explained to Jody that even when
he couldn't see her anymore, she always would
be with him in his mind and his heart.
Jody watched and listened, but it's never easy to tell what he
truly remembers and understands.
A
couple of weeks ago, Jody walked into his speech and language
therapist's room with two of his friends. He
handed the therapist the letter his mother had given months
before. He asked his therapist to read it to
him. She did.
"I love you, Jody," it
said.
"You are a very smart and good boy.
Take good care of John and granny for me. If
you need me just close your eyes and I'll always be there for you.
Pray and be good every day for
me. "Love,
Mom."
On the back of the letter, Jody's
mom had drawn a big heart.
When his therapist finished reading the
letter, Jody put his head down and began to
sob. "My mom is dying and there's nothing I
can do," Jody said.
Jody's therapist began
to cry. She hugged him. One of Jody's friends
asked the therapist if they could say a prayer for Jody's mother.
They did.
Donna Joe Allen died Monday, the day after Mother's Day. At her
funeral, people who knew her talked about her
kindness, her courage, her faith, her smile, her
love.
Jody watched and listened. There is no
doubt he understands and will never forget.
His mother didn't just tell him, she showed
him.
"IT ALSO APPEARED IN THE
CLARKSVILLE, TN LEAF-CHRONICLE AND SEVERAL OTHERS IN THE USA. MY
HEARTFELT THANKS GOES OUT TO HIM FOR ALLOWING ME TO SHARE THIS WITH
YOU....Her Father, DON BUTLER"
When you
walk through a storm, Keep your head up high, and don't be afraid of
the dark, At the end of a storm is a GOLDEN
SKY!
I WAS BLIND, BUT NOW I
SEE JOHN
9:25
This was written by Donna a
short time before she went to the arms of Jesus.... She had it
published in her local
newspaper.
THANK YOU
"Thank You
God, for every day You have given me to breath, live and love. Thank
You Lord, for each and every friend You gave me to love and
enjoy. Thank You Jesus, for
each day You suffered for my sins and the worlds sins. Thank You
for love, sadness and for allowing me to know the meaning of
compassion. Thank You Lord, for allowing me to see the goodness in
people's caring hearts. Thank You God, for my three sons. I hope to
spend eternity in Heaven with them. Thank You friends, for your gifts
of love, kindness, prayer, money and guidance. Thank you family, for
your unconditional love, now more than ever. I will always have a place
set at my table in Heaven for you all and my many friends. Thank You
strangers, for your wamth and caring hearts because you are not strangers
to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank You Mom and
Dad, for creating me out of love and hope.
A very special Thank You to my sons......who have
been great through all of this. A very special Thank You to "Dr. Jon
Winter" and his staff. May God Bless each one with His Everlasting Love
and Forgiveness.
Thank You so
much to each and everyone through this battle with
cancer." Donna Joe
Allen
Donna Allen,
33 of Camden,Tennessee, died Monday, May 14, 2001 at Camden General
Hospital of cancer. Services were held at 2 p.m on Wednesday, May
16,2001 at Bruceton Funeral Home. Hillard Collins officiated.
Burial followed at Mt. Carmel Cemetery near
Camden,Tennessee.. Pallbearers who served were Robert Melton, Tony
Allen, Mark Cole, Michael Lockhart, Eddie Jean Dupree and Byron
Smothers. Ms. Allen was born March 5, 1968, in Camden,Tn, Benton
County. She was a retired assistant manager for Q-Mart in
Bruceton,Tn. She was preceded in death by a son, Cody Lee
Strickland. She is survived by two sons; Johnathan Strickland and Jody
Strickland both of Camden; her father, Donald I. Butler of Gun Barel City,
Tx; her mother, Joann Butler of Camden; and her paternal grandmother,
June C. Butler of Clarksville and hundreds of relatives and
friends who will remember her always! We Love You
Donna
Donna Joe Allen
A FEW
WORDS FROM HER DADDY "Hello dear family and friends of Donna. This tribute to Donna
has been a labor of love, saddness, sorrow and questions that will be
answered some day and has been the most difficult task that I have
ever faced in life. This tribute to her memory has been filled with
many emotions on my part and has been very painful for me to produce.
However, I feel that it had to be done....that I owed it to her, her
family and her many friends because she was such a wonderful
angel while she was struggling through her short time on earth with
us.
I feel that the
Lord sent her to us as a test of both her........and us, and I hope
that we can all learn a lesson from her while in her last moments she
had that smile on her face as she went running to her son held by the arms
of Jesus! She passed the test......and hopefully we will
too.
She touched and
changed many lives with her smile while she was here and I know she
will never be forgotten.
I hope that all of you have enjoyed
these few memories that I have put together on this site and I thank
you all for your kindness and love for
her.
Please feel free
to download any pictures or material from this site and if any of you have
any pictures of Donna or anything that you would like to share
with others that I could add here, let me know by way of email." I
think that she would like that. She is gone from this earth but not
from our hearts." Donald I.
Butler
"DADDY"
"If you need me, just close your
eyes and I'll always be there for
you!"
Donna Allen,
33 of Camden,Tennessee, died Monday, May 14, 2001 at Camden General
Hospital of cancer. Services were held at 2 p.m on Wednesday, May
16,2001 at Bruceton Funeral Home. Hillard Collins officiated.
Burial followed at Mt. Carmel Cemetery near
Camden,Tennessee. Pallbearers who served were Robert Melton, Tony
Allen, Mark Cole, Michael Lockhart, Eddie Jean Dupree and Byron
Smothers. Ms. Allen was born March 5, 1968, in Camden,Tn, Benton
County. She was a retired assistant manager for Q-Mart in
Bruceton,Tn. She was preceded in death by a son, Cody Lee
Strickland. She is survived by two sons; Johnathan Strickland and Jody
Strickland both of Camden; her father, Donald I. Butler of Gun Barel
City, Tx; her mother, Joann Butler of Camden; and her paternal
grandmother, June C. Butler of Clarksville and hundreds of
relatives and friends who will remember her always! We Love You
Donna
Listen to an excerpt of a
song by Vince Gill "Go Rest High on That
Mountain" that was played at her funeral. The
words are very appropriate for her life and death. She passed the
test!