He Had Our Back
Now Jones family thanks Porterville
The family of Patrick Jones wanted Porterville to know how much they appreciated the community’s support, so they wrote a letter to the entire city.
Jones, a Porterville City Firefighter, died on February 18 battling the blaze that destroyed the Porterville Public Library.
“You guys were amazing,” said Jones’ sister, Katie Bryant. “We wanted everybody to know.”
Here’s the letter written by the Jones family: To the Remarkable City of Porterville
The Jones Family wants to extend our sincere gratitude to all of you in the City of Porterville. We were absolutely blown away by the kindness and compassion that you showed our family in a time that completely took our breath away and has forever changed our family.
The love of your community coming together and wrapping us in your prayers while treating our family like you were our neighbors was an amazing gift in itself. You grieved with us as we lost the light of our world and you lost your firefighter Patrick Jones.
The outpouring of kindness that came from each and everyone of you will never be forgotten. Our family will forever remember how you made us feel and made us not only understand but showed us what an honor and blessing it was that Patrick got to be a part of the community of Porterville. We felt the love wrap around our family every single day and it continues. We truly love you Porterville!
We want to thank you for putting together a powerful tribute in the park. The honor and shared grief that this community showed for your fallen firefighter was remarkable.
It was felt from the moment the alarm sounded, to each moment by moment while we waited for news to find our Patrick. We could feel everyone’s prayers as we prayed and held on to each other.
Deeply and wholeheartedly we would like send out a thank you to each and every one of you, the entire community. Every one of you has brought something special and touched our family in a way words can never explain. From all of your prayers, condolence cards, books, and your creative gifts that were hand made. To the beautiful woodworks, the cozy gift baskets, the beautiful glass crosses, video tributes, custom tshirts the list goes on and on.
The amount of dedication and time that was put into the remembrance for Patrick, along with the incredible family of first responders that with tear filled eyes that stood shoulder to shoulder to mourn our shared loss was more we could have imagined. The generosity and kindness that you’ve shown our family has been such a blessing, we cannot thank you enough for loving him like your own.
Patrick was and will forever be the light of our family. But in the midst of our grief your entire community’s support will remain a treasured gift and will forever be in out hearts. With Love, The Jones Family, John, Sandi, Gregory Justin and Katie Bryant