Linda Mondragon Jordan

Our mother, Linda Tatiana DeMiranda Mondragon Jordan, died on Monday morning, 5/13/2024 at age 87. Our Mother was so many things to her children Hilary and Philip- and others, but for now, this is what we can convey. Our mother loved plants and flowers. Her gardens were a fantastical refuge for Hilary when she was young. And when she gave birth to Max, Mom planted a whole summer garden with flowers and tomatoes and herbs on their tiny condo deck. Mom loved animals! She nursed so many birds after our cats harmed them, feeding them with tiny droppers into their beaks. Linda LOVED books and music, classical and opera, and later leaned into jazz, and she even came to appreciate Elvis Costello. She was a historian by nature and study and was one of the only people besides her best friend M’Liz who devoured biographies of medieval and renaissance historical figures as voraciously as she did her favorite murder mysteries. Colors ignited our mother’s imagination — not only the colors of flowers and fabrics and the sky but also oddly the colors of cars. “Oh, I just LOVE that shade of blue.” When we were very young, she sewed her own and Philip’s and my clothes; some of her dresses, including her wedding dress, were “haute couture.” Mom loved the ocean and its shells, even though she had a phobia of putting her head under the water. Linda was born in the salty-air greenness of North Carolina to musical, spiritual, and kind-hearted parents. She had strong memories of her loving father, who was called into service towards the end of WWII and was killed in the Battle of the Bulge. Life after that was not easy for this brilliant and gentle lady. As so many from that generation know, you dealt with life’s sorrows mostly on your own. Mom held herself and Philip and Hilary together through humor, black tea, faith, and deep love — love for us, love shared with her remarkable friends, and love for the beauty in the world. All of it, any of it. Wherever she could find it, she nurtured beauty. If you were a plant, if you were an animal, if you were a human, and you were hurting — Linda would see you and nurture you, if you were willing. Alzheimer’s has been a buckets-of-tears journey for Linda’s loving family. But it provided blessings too. As her brain functioned less and less, Mom’s spirit grew brighter and brighter until she shone like a moonbeam on a September night. Her light-filled us up. Eyes sparkling, arms outstretched, the softest cheeks touching ours. She radiated, and we soaked it in. We have more buckets to fill. But we will always have that, the most important part — her spirit, her moonbeam.

Linda is survived by her devoted children; Hilary Jordan (Matt McCallum) and Philip Jordan (Patricia Green). She is also survived by her 4 loving grandchildren, Max McCallum, Abbie Jordan, Sydney Jordan, and Spencer Jordan and their mother, Ruth Spencer Jordan.

Linda was predeceased by her father, Capt. Genaro Mondragon who earned the esteemed Purple Heart for his heroic actions in the Battle of the Bulge where he ultimately lost his life, and her loving mother, Rose B. Mondragon.

A Celebration of Life will take at 11 am on Saturday, June 15. The family will begin to receive friends starting at 10 am.