April Jones’ voice cracked as she described the final days and moments of her husband, Northeast police Officer Johnnie Jones, before he succumbed to a bacterial infection Monday morning.
“To hear your best friend tell you they are tired and they want to go is the worst pain ever,” she said.
Johnnie Jones was reportedly healthy following a shift on Wednesday. He was said to have awoken at 1 a.m. unable to breathe. He was rushed to the hospital and soon placed into intensive care at Denton Regional Medical Center. It was a bacterial infection that shut down his organs.
He died Monday morning.
Jones had been with the Northeast Police Department, which serves Cross Roads and Krugerville, since April. He had been working in law enforcement for a little more than a decade.
“It hurts so bad,” April Jones said, “but at the time same time I know he would want me to pick myself up and be strong because we have a 5-year-old I have to continue living for.”
She said her husband was never alone at any point he was in the hospital, having family, friends, and co-workers past and present at his bedside at all times.
“That’s how well-liked he was,” she said. “The three, four days he was in the hospital we had people coming up and I didn’t know who they were, and they were checking on him and checking on his family,” she said.
Friends and family have launched a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe.com to help Johnnie Jones’ widow with expenses, including funeral service costs.
Alena Diaz said the intent is for all profits to go to the family as they see fit to help them with medical expenses, gas and the funeral.
The effort raised more than $5,000 throughout the day Monday.
“I count it as a blessing from God,” April Jones said. “He’s telling me everything is OK. You will have your moments where you are crying, upset and you want to scream, and you will have your moments you are OK. And right now I am OK.
“The amount of support I have seen on Facebook alone is amazing. I can’t express how much it means to me that all of these people want to help.”
The fundraising campaign, “Care Fund for April and Audrey Jones,” can be found at www.gofundme.com/g03xto.
BJ LEWIS can be reached at 940-566-6875 and via Twitter @BjLewisDRC.
