‘Walking for my family.’ UK grad keeps pushing, even after COVID-19 hospitalized his mom.
Like most of the world, Montre’ale Jones is waiting for this storm to pass.
“Every storm, it passes, and then there’s clear sky afterwards,” Jones, a University of Kentucky student, said in a recent interview. “So I just keep repeating that to myself, because all things can’t last forever.”
For Jones, an incredibly accomplished student studying architecture, the storm that has been the COVID-19 pandemic has become personal over the past several months. His mother has been hospitalized since January. Jones, a graduate student and leader in multiple campus organizations, has also become a bedside comforter.
On Friday, Jones will join hundreds of his classmates at Rupp Arena for the university’s first in-person graduation ceremony since 2019. He finished his undergraduate degree in May 2020 and a year later will get to cross a real, physical stage to get a glimpse of the clear skies to come.
“A year later, I won’t just be walking for myself,” Jones said. “But I’ll be walking for my family, for my mom, and just since they won’t be able to be there, too, it’s just a matter of saying, thank you.”
The beginnings of an aspiring architect
Growing up, anything around the house was “up for grabs as far as creating something new from it.”
“Of course, if you made something new, you got to show your parents every single time,” said Jones, who grew up in Hopkinsville.
So while constructing a “red solo cup structure” in his family’s kitchen when he was around 10 or 11, Jones remembers telling his mom that he wanted to be a construction worker.
“And she was like, ‘Well, why don’t you be an architect?’” From there, Jones said his love for the field has grown as he’s gotten more education.
He graduated from Christian County High School in 2015 and started his higher education career less than a mile from home at Hopkinsville Community College.
Involved in and outside the classroom
Jones became the student government president at the college and would serve in one of two student representative spots on the Kentucky Community and Technical College Systems’ Board of Regents.
He graduated from HCC in 2017 and enrolled in UK’s demanding architecture program while also continuing his involvement outside the classroom.
Looking to push himself and the status quo, Jones looked for opportunities to serve others.
Between all-nighters in the studio, Jones was active at both the local and national levels in MANNRS (Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences). He worked in UK’s student government, presided over the campus chapter the American Institute of Architecture Students and helped found and lead UK’s chapter of the National Organization for Minority Architects.
He was a part of UK’s Homecoming Court in 2018 and the Mr. and Ms. UK Black UK Royal Homecoming Court in 2019. On top of that, Jones spent two years in UK’s Gaines Fellowship in the Humanities. Jones said he wanted to show that it was possible to be involved on campus even with a demanding major.
Just like for every other student, the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic meant Jones was meeting his classmates online. In the midst of the pandemic, Jones wrapped up his undergraduate degree and has embarked on earning a masters degree in urban and environmental design.
A call from the hospital
In January, Jones got a call informing him that his mom was in the hospital. She’d gone to get an opinion on what had seemed to be the common cold.
“When she went to the hospital, she was expecting to get some medicine and then leave,” Jones said. “But what had happened was she became an admitted patient.”
An overnight stay turned into a week-long projection for recovery. That week turned into a month, that month has turned into a season.
“It’s been a lot to deal with, not to sugarcoat it,” Jones said. “She’s exemplified strength that I’ve never seen in my family.”
Jones said his sister is also expecting a new addition to the family, making his mom a first-time grandmother and him a first-time uncle.
“I would describe our situation as my mom and me trying to fight to keep her alive in facing the reality of death and making sure she’s abundant in years,” Jones said. “And then on the other hand, making sure my sister celebrating and then also preparing for the arrival of my niece.”
Jones’ mom went from nasal oxygen to a ventilator. He said he took care of her skin and played music in her ear while she was unconscious. At the same time, Jones was taking classes and running organizational meetings via Zoom all while in the hospital room.
‘A new beginning’
Now, Jones said his family is at a point where they can take a breath. His mom has made it out of the worst stretches of the respiratory disease and has moved on to physical therapy.
When he got the call that his mom was moving into PT, he said he was happy to celebrate and finally know that his mom “is going to make it home.”
Jones will get to walk across the stage on Friday and then again in December after his master’s degree is completed when he’s hoping he’ll be able to have a few more family members present.
“Once this chapter ends, everything prior to this is in the past, and it’s time for us to start a new beginning, based off of what our what our experiences have been recently,” Jones said. “This is for them, this is for me and this is a thank you to UK for the phenomenal experience I’ve had here as a student.”
This story was originally published May 12, 2021 at 11:54 AM.