Dolores J. Jordan, 85, died Thursday, September 22, 2022, at Briarcliffe Manor, Johnston. She was the wife of Kenneth C. Jordan. They would have celebrated 63 years of marriage November 21st.
Born in Providence, she was the daughter of the late Everett and Irene (Giroux) Smith. Dolores had lived in Greenville for 52 years prior to moving to Briarcliffe in 2021.
Dolores graduated from St. Xavier’s Academy in 1954. She first worked as a secretary in the Providence Superior Court and retired from Family Court in 1988.
Dolores was a communicant of and lector at St. Philip’s Church in Greenville. Her Catholic faith was important to her beginning with her days as a young student at the former Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Xavier schools in Providence. At St. Philip’s, she could often be found making her Holy Hour at least once a week.
During her time as a high school student at St. Xavier’s, Dolores developed a passion for writing. This passion later expressed itself in the many letters that she wrote to both the Providence Journal and local newspapers, including the Observer Publications. She enjoyed writing on current topics of interest, especially politics, and was not shy about expressing her opinions.
Besides her husband, she is survived by her children: Brian Jordan and his wife, Lori of West Greenwich and Brenda Hurley and her husband, Bob of Uxbridge, MA, her grandchildren Samuel and Gillian Jordan and Emma and Madeline Hurley and her sister, Eileen Dandeneau of Greenville.
Visitation will be held Monday morning, 8:30-10:30 am in the Anderson-Winfield Funeral Home, Rt 44 at Greenville Common, Greenville. Mass of Christian Burial at 11am in St Philip Church, 622 Putnam Avenue, Greenville. Burial will follow in Highland Memorial Park, Johnston. In lieu of flowers donations in her memory may be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Brian's words at the comital service;
Thank you all for your support and expressions of sympathy regarding the recent passing of our mother, Delores. It has meant a lot to my family and I.
Some reflections on my mother, some of which I had offered at her graveside burial ceremony at Highland Memorial Park where she is interred.
My mother passed away around 9:00am in the morning Thursday, September 22, 2022. It was raining heavily that morning when my sister called to tell me that she had gotten a call from Briarcliffe Cottage, where my mother had been a resident, that my mother stopped breathing after breakfast. Fortunately, I had been only about 5 minutes away from Briarcliffe and immediately drove there. I will never forget the image of coming upon her lifeless body on her bed in her room. I cried for a while but I got to spend some time alone with her until my wife and then, later my sister and her husband joined us. In that time alone with my mother, many of the memories that I had of her from my time as a child in the 1960’s to being a 60 year old man today flashed through my head. I thanked her for everything that she had done for my family and I.
My mother’s health had deteriorated quite a bit over the past 3 plus years. She had heart problems along with other health related issues and multiple hospitalizations. One of her hospital stays was for a fall in 2019. That fall resulted in cranial bleeding which required her to have a craniotomy to release the pressure from the bleeding. Despite her multiple healthy issues, she received excellent care at the Briarcliffe Cottage where she became a resident in 2021. My family and I are grateful to all the wonderful staff there for the great care they provided. We are also grateful to Tom Winfield and Charlene Winfield Capuano for handling all the funeral arrangements.
Even with her heart problems and hospitalizations, my mother remained the character that she had been prior to her deteriorating health and for most of my life. If you knew my mother, you knew that she didn’t have the best filter when she spoke or wrote. For example, for decades, if my mother thought that someone was “to big for their britches” or to self important, she had a favorite saying for them: “Big Shot ? Big Shit !” Sometimes, she would say it directly to that person ! Her caregivers at Briarcliffe also found out that my mother didn’t have much of a filter from the off-color nicknames which she assigned to them, but which they all wore like a badge of honor. They enjoyed her and she enjoyed them !
In a spiritually ironically way, that my mother passed away on September 22 may have been her way of sending me a classic Delores style message. On September 22, 1990, I had met my ex-wife, Mary Beth, on a blind date. We had gotten married in 1993 and, while we had two wonderful children together, we got divorced in 2006. Even though I am now happily remarried, over the years, whenever September 22 rolls around, I think back to that day in 1990. In 2021, when September 22 came and went, I don’t recall thinking about it. However, when September 22 rolled around this year, I do recall thinking about 9/22/1990 as I was getting dressed fro work. Why do I mention this ? Simple ! I would have not put it past my mother to quietly pass away on September 22 just so she could leave me with a final message of “I am your mother, not your ex-wife. I am more important ! Think of me now on September 22 !” I will Ma !
As you know, my mother loved to write. Her passion for writing began when she was a high school student at St. Francis Xavier Academy in Providence in the early 1950’s. She was a fan of the English language, proper grammar, and correct spelling. She had been a frequent contributor to the Providence Journal and to The Observer, a local newspaper for Northwestern Rhode Island. She mostly wrote about politics, politicians, and topics of currant interest. Over the years, some of my mother’s letters captured the attention of my former bosses at Blue Cross & Blue Shield or some of the elected officials at the RI State House whom I was required to lobby as a Blue Cross lobbyist. These letters made for interesting exchanges with her targets when I came face to face with them. Former RI State Senator John J. Tassoni comes to mind, followed by former (now deceased) RI AFL-CIO Chief Frank Montanoro who was then Chair of the Blue Cross Board of Directors while I was working for Blue Cross. Both were the targets of her written ire in the Providence Journal and The Observer. Ironically, John Tassoni was the first in line at my mother’s wake.
One of my mother’s most memorable letters was a letter to the Providences Journal in which she opined that people of attending a show at the Providence Performing Arts Center, and who were of a certain girth, should be required to purchase two seats. Her letter was the result of my mother having to “share” part of her seat with a person of girth seated next to her. That letter was classic Delores.
Once she discovered it, Facebook represented a dangerous new outlet on which my mother could express her opinions ! My sister and I quickly found that my mother didn’t realize the full impact of posting remarks on Facebook., remarks that would have been vetted or edited by the Providence Journal and The Observer. Social media is truly the Wild West ! We were quietly looking for a way to steer her off Facebook in July of 2019, when my mother had one of her first hospitalizations. Little did we know then that my mother’s last email to me would be sent on July 4, 2019. Because of her deteriorating health, she was no longer able to use a computer.
Despite her often-sharp pen and tongue, my mother was a very religious person. She could often found making her “Holy Hour” at St. Philip Church where she had been a lector for many years. As a child and as a young adult, my mother (and father) taught me the value of prayer and faith. I can still recall nightly prayers that I would recite with both my parents as a young child in the 1960’s, including a prayer for peace for all the soldiers in Vietnam and for an end to the Vietnam War. In fact, my past consideration of going into the Catholic Priesthood is directly attributed to my mother’s influence. While I choose to be a husband and father instead, my mother developed and encouraged in me a strong faith.
Another childhood memory is my mother and our Fairview Drive next-door neighbor, Joe Giblin, convincing my father that in 1972 it was ok for boys to get braces. I can still hear my mother saying to father, “Jesus Christ, do you want him to grow up with buck teeth ?”
As I said at the graveside ceremony, if there is a major newspaper in heaven, look out ! My mother reconnects with her parents and other deceased family members, I fully expect her to take stock of everything that is going on and to begin writing about it. I think she will also seek out Jim Croce to let him know that Bad Bad Leroy Brown was her all-time favorite song.
The death of a parent is an unsettling experience. Again, as her health had been deteriorating, I knew my mother’s day were numbered, but it was still a shock when she did pass. I thought she would live much longer.
My father Ken is also a resident at Briarcliffe but in the Gardens building which is a dementia unit. Adding to the shock of my mother’s death was and is that my father has no idea or comprehension that my mother, his wife, is no longer with us.
My mother did not live an easy life. Some of that was outside of her control, yet some was within her control. My prayer for her is now that she can finally find happiness with the Lord and with her family. I know she will want to connect with the two children whom she miscarried between my birth in 1962 and my sister’s birth in 1973. She often spoke of them.
My sister and I would certainly not be the people we are today, or have the education we have, were it not for our mother’s strong and protective influence and love for us.
The world will not be the same without Delores in it but my sister and I are blessed and grateful that she was our mother and look forward, someday, to reuniting with her. May she rest in peace !
Thank you all for your support.