Ode to Ollie Jones

His name was Ollie Jones. He was a native of Magoffin County. Ollie could barely hear, had very poor vision and a speech impediment that made him hard to understand. Ollie was a short man standing about five feet two inches tall and he wore a huge straw hat. He had no teeth. His lower lip overlapped the upper one and touched his nose. I met Ollie at my Granny and Paw Huff's house. Granny kept people who had nowhere to live. Ollie was one of them. When I saw him first, he was standing on the front porch beside the open well where he had just drawn a fresh bucket of cold water. He dipped his cup in the bucket and began to drink. When he set the cup on the well I saw him. It looked as if his chin was under his nose and he had no mouth. I was a little apprehensive… until he smiled …and his eyes lit up like candles.

He was a lovable little man very caring, open and honest. He had little formal education. We came to love him. Then he was gone. Until one day Mom got a phone call. I don't know who it was but they had news about Ollie. I heard Mom say his name then she got real quiet. It seems our law enforcing authorities arrested him and put him in jail for vagrancy. After all this 70+ year old man was out after curfew….Little did they know, it was the best thing they could have done for Ollie. But they had no idea of the fury about to rain down upon them.

 It upset Mom, a little woman with a big heart and a soft spot for older people. She went to town and brought Ollie home with her.

Mom was upset to say the least. What she saw burned an image in her mind that would not go away.

Ollie was in a cell that smelled of human urine and feces. It seems some young teens thought it fun to throw things at him, to stop up his commode with toilet paper, call him names and bully him through the door of the cell. A dead rat was in the floor beside the makeshift bed. Ollie cried when he saw mom. Perhaps he knew someone cared. Perhaps it was relief. Perhaps he knew he would be rescued, his prayers answered.

The story was one she could not or would not forget.

Phone call after phone call to Frankfort and threats to come sit in their offices till something was done finally got her to a person who listened. She vividly told the story about abuse of an elder from our community.

Whether anything happened because of Mom's efforts is unknown. I've always been told there was an investigation and a couple of people lost their jobs due to negligence.  Whether there was or was not an investigation, Mom felt better. She didn't give up. She stood up for what she believed was right.

Ollie lived with us for many years. He nicknamed everyone in the family and some who were not. It was his way of remembering us. When his health declined so much that Mom couldn't care for him in her home, she admitted Ollie to the Nursing Home in Salyersville where she visited him once a week throughout his life.

This is a story about Ollie Jones and a snapshot of my mom in her prime. Small in stature but a giant when she is committed to an issue. I'm not sure how many older people she kept in our home. I remember several who were members of our community and several more who were placed here by the State from the Eastern State Hospital. All of them were treated like family but Ollie Jones has a special place in our hearts.