Raquel Jones

Raquel was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, the daughter of Juan Antero Vazquez and Carmen Pizarro and stepdaughter of Carmelo Ortiz. She was raised by her grandparents Victoriano and Pascuala Pizarro. She was a great storyteller and enjoyed recounting tales of her days on their farm in Canovanas.

As a high school student, she excelled in drama and English hoping to move to the U.S. and pursue a career in theatre. But God had other plans. During her teenage years her family learned of the Advent message and became pioneers of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Puerto Rico. Her newfound faith instilled in her a passion for God and she began to feel a call to ministry. She also found a new outlet for her dramatic talents and began to use them for God. She was known and sought after by churches for her dramatic recitations of sacred poetry and scripture.

After high school she moved to New York where she was an active member of the Prospect Seventh-day Adventist Church and was hired by the Greater New York Conference as a Bible Worker. She attended Atlantic Union College where she majored in religion and home economics. There she met her Mr. Right, Colville McDonald Jones. They married in August 25, 1957 in her beloved Prospect Church and from there embarked on a 59-year adventure that took them to Dayton, Ohio, Camden, New Jersey, Bronx, New York, Mandeville, Jamaica, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, Washington DC and Orlando Florida. In each of these places Raquel threw herself into ministry at whatever church they were in, using her myriad talents and gifts.

She worked in children’s ministries, pathfinders, women’s ministries, health ministries, Adventist Community Services, participated in mission trips, she sang in choirs, she wrote and produced a play that was performed in churches throughout the Florida Conference and in Houston, TX. She began an initiative for young girls to prevent teen pregnancy.

In her wide-ranging career she taught kindergarten in the New York City public school system, high school Spanish and home economics at West Indies College (now Northern Caribbean University) in Mandeville, Jamaica. Many will remember the cultural programs she produced with the Spanish Club featuring musical performances, skits, and folkloric dance.

In her forties, with children ages 16, 12 and 2, she enrolled in nursing school at Antillian University in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. She worked as a nurse at Bella Vista Hospital, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico then answered the call to serve as Dean of Women at Antillian University. Many of her girls will recall some of the elaborate pranks she engaged with in a war of pranks with the residents of the men’s dorm. One involved a borrowed horse let loose in the dorm in the middle of the night.

In 1980 during the Cuban boatlift crisis. Raquel answered an ad in the paper recruiting bilingual nurses. She and her husband drove the three hours to San Juan to interview. She was hired on the spot and within 24 hours was on a plane to Washington DC to work at St. Elizabeth Hospital where some of the Cuban refugees were being temporarily housed as part of the US Government’s efforts to provide medical care and support before relocating to other locations or half-way housing. It was supposed to be a six-month assignment. Her family joined her a year later. By the time she left five years later she was the program’s Director of Nursing.

In 1985 they moved to sunny Florida. Her first attempts to pass the Florida nursing board exam were unsuccessful. Undaunted she started and ran a successful cleaning business until she was able to pass her board and practice nursing again. She worked for Florida Hospital as a home care nurse, visiting patients in their home often ministering to their spiritual as well as their physical needs. One resulted in baptism.

She “retired” in the early 2000s but never quit working. Even as the disease ravaged her mind she continued to love and care for others, nurturing and looking after her fellow patients in the nursing facility she was in.

Her most cherished role, however, was that of wife, mother, and grandmother and home maker. She was her family’s greatest cheerleader, nurturing and encouraging their passion and celebrating their successes and achievements. She relished being a grandmother. She was present at the birth of several of her grandchildren often assisting in their delivery when possible. When she could not be present she arrived soon after to care for mom and baby, cooking delicious and nourishing meals, and taking the night shift so exhausted parents could sleep.

She took great pride in her home that she loved to decorate and her flower garden. She made beautiful flower arrangements, was a talented seamstress and a phenomenal cook. She had the gift of hospitality. There was always company. There was always food. There was always room for one more.

She spent her last days in the home of her son and daughter-in-love, James and Maria, who lovingly cared for her until the end. James, her first born, was at her side at the time of her death on December 1st.

This life, so well lived, has left a lasting impact not only on her children and grandchildren but on so many who considered her their spiritual mother – those she nurtured and mentored in the faith.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Colville McDonald Jones; Her mother, Carmen Pizzaro Ortiz; father Antero Vazquez and stepfather Carmelo Ortiz. She is survived by her son, Colville James Jones, and daughter-in-love, Maria Castillo Jones; daughter, Milta Lydee Jones Battle, and son-in-love, Maurice Battle; daughter, Alicia Raquel Jones-Lumbuz and son-in-love, Richard W. Lumbuz; grandchildren, Colville James Jones, Jr., Nathan Jones, Raymond Jones, Natasha Jones Montanez, Rockie Mayo, Najee Jones, Nicole Jones, Alicia Battle, Esther Battle-Marston, Ora Battle, Jahzira Benitez, Jonathan Lumbuz, Lydée Nehema Lumbuz; siblings Carmelo Ortiz, David Ortiz and America Vasquez Figueroa; 12 great grandchildren, and many others who will never forget the love she brought to their lives.