Claudette Jones-Walker

When I was dreaming up this blog idea (and losing sleep out of excitement), this woman immediately came to mind.  She is not famous.  She will likely never grace the cover of a magazine.  She may never be on television.  She is not married to a celebrity. She is not a millionaire.  She may be seen as ‘ordinary’ at first glance.   In reality, she is amazing.  She is better than amazing, she is extraordinary. 

Good old ‘Merriam-Webster’ defines extraordinary as such:

extraordinary adjective ex·​traor·​di·​nary 

1a : going beyond what is usual, regular, or customary //extraordinary powers

b : exceptional to a very marked extent //extraordinary beauty

c: of a financial transaction : nonrecurring

2 : employed for or sent on a special function or service //an ambassador extraordinary

I met Claudette a little over 4 years ago when I started my job at a small Veteran’s Affairs clinic in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota.  She works as a medical support assistant and I was hired to provide psychotherapy to veterans.  If I am being honest, initially I noticed her for her snazzy footwear, ever-changing trendy hair styles and coordinated outfits.  But, that only lasted a short while as I realized the greater depth and spirit of this woman.  Claudette is somebody that you want to be around.  Her smile and her essence are truly contagious.

There was no doubt in my mind that she was the definition of what I envisioned this blog to be.  To emphasize, this was quite glaring recently when she left for a short medical leave from work. It is common practice in our clinic to send an email alerting others of the days we will be gone and nothing more. But not Claudette, she of course sent her email alerting all that she would be gone for a period of time, but she ended the email with “remember that teamwork makes the dreamwork…” This is her. Such a small thing, yet this is where ordinary ends and extraordinary begins.

She is not aware of this, but I enlisted the help of some co-workers to contribute their recognition of her extraordinary-ness. Emily, a registered nurse, sent me this (after I first asked her to not think I was crazy) when asked what makes Claudette an amazing human. She said (or more accurately she Facebook messaged), “she IS an amazing human…I look forward to my daily hug. Her warm words, kind smile, and calm presence is everything I need to get through my day or any hard moment. I thank God for blessing my life with Claudette…if only more were like her.”

Another nurse, Kim simply stated, “She is always bright and cheerful. A positive force of energy in the workplace. A Christian woman that honestly cares about others with a gift of intuition.”

Becky, a radiologic technologist, “Claudette visits my office with open arms every morning. Our words exchanged are always the same. Claudette: Good morning my Becky. Becky: Good morning, Mama. Sometimes its a quick hello, sometimes a brief conversation. Both mean the world to me and I always miss it when she is absent from work. With my entire heart, I can say she is one of the most beautiful and genuine women to ever enter my life.” Insert the waterworks, this opened the flood gates for me.

When I asked Claudette about Becky, she gushed, “she is my little doll, I just listen to the Lord and I know when she needs me.”

Claudette was born in Cleveland, Mississippi in what she described as ‘The Delta.’  When asked about her young life, she let me know that it was “good and I never wanted for anything.” She enjoyed school and had many friends.  Her family moved to Chicago in 1969 and she graduated high school in 1974.  She maintains a strong connection to a childhood friend from Mississippi and visits her every single year.  Without blinking, she said that when she visits her friend they “go roller skating and have lunch in the park” as if everybody does this with their kindergarten friend.  Did I mention yet that Miss Roller Skater is 63 years old.  Read that again, 63 years old.  And even though she did not graduate from high school in Mississippi, she attends the class reunions regularly and I can see why they gladly open their arms and hearts to her. 

She met and married her first husband in Chicago.  Sadly, he died at age 46 from complications related to asthma. When asked how she managed that loss, she frankly stated, “I had to soak it all in, I did a lot of praying and meditating.” Claudette has 3 adult children, two sons and a daughter. She also has 10 grandchildren, and in stalking her social media feed, family is clearly her pride and joy.

In 1982 she ventured to California where she was a mail carrier for 7 years. She lived there until 2005. She let me in on a fun fact about this when I asked her what she thinks makes her extraordinary. She explained that she had to take an exam to become a mail carrier and needed a score of at least 79 out of 100 to pass. Well, this fine lady scored herself a 96. Boom. She admitted that she liked school and being a “smarty pants” and had a competitive streak when it came to education.

She graduated from Century College in 2014 after studying Medical Assisting.  She has held her current job at the VA clinic for nearly 5 years and notes, “life is work, I do what I have to do.”  When asked how she feels about working with veterans, she immediately said that she enjoys it.  And damn, is it evident.  She is often one of the first faces a veteran will see when they enter our clinic and then they are blessed with that smile.  If there is something she does not know, rather than turning somebody away or “passing the hat” so to speak, she is overheard saying, “I don’t know, but I will figure it out.”  She does hope to retire in the next few years to travel (despite her current husband not being a fan of travel).

She has been married to her current husband now for about 5 years. He is a Vietnam veteran and she describes him as a “talker, he likes to chit chat and I just listen.” When asked what she thinks makes her just ‘ordinary’ she replied simply with “family, time with family.” She enjoys going out to eat with her husband, barbecuing, watching movies and attending church. She has a strong Baptist church family and is devoted to her faith. Despite this devotion she also recognized her human side, reminding me that she does cuss once in the while, admitting, “cussing is a cleansing.” She also likes to sit in her backyard by a pond and watch the ducks, fish and an occasional eagle.

What makes her extraordinary is that she also considers her coworkers her ‘work family.’ Our clinic suffered a rather sudden and tragic loss of a young pharmacist a few years ago. On the morning after his passing, Claudette was one of the first to send a clinic-wide email (that damn I wish I would have kept) that recognized the entire clinic lost a ‘brother’ and that we should all hold one another in our thoughts on that difficult day. When I asked her about this, she said, “he was my ‘little cutie’, but I know some days he had his [gray] cloud…I prayed for him a lot.” She holds all of us in her thoughts, we feel it. She shared that she tries to avoid work gossip and arrives to work a bit early so that she can sit in her vehicle to say prayers and set intentions for her day. She may or may not also be known to blast some gospel music in the wee hours of the morning. When I asked her to say more about what makes her extraordinary, she gave a humble shrug and replied, “you know better, you do better, I stay in tune, I stay still and listen.” Although her life has not been without struggle, she has not given up. She knows loss, starting with her first husband and has since lost several cousins, a nephew, friends, some to health concerns, some to drugs, some to suicide, yet she maintains a forward focus.

So why are we better to have her in our lives or have been graced with the opportunity to know her?  Well she said, “once they know me, it is on, I just focus on love…”  Ordinary, maybe.  Extraordinary, certainly.

As an aside, I put off writing this, not because it wasn’t burning my heart and soul to put into the universe, but because I am a perfectionist and in true perfectionist form, we wait to start things. I feared that my words could never truly capture what she is really all about. I sent Claudette a message to alert her that I was going to finally be working on this blog and admitted my procrastination and perfectionism. Her response, “it is going to be great (several thumbs up emojis) and there’s a time and a place for beginnings and ends, just do it.”

This is us honoring our co-worker who passed away…