Jones family amazed by the support and compassion Richmond Catholic community has given their son, fighting leukemia
Editor's note: This is the second in a three-part series about how Catholic schools contribute to the faith lives of those in their communities.
RICHMOND — When David and Nikki Jones first moved to Richmond in 2021, they didn’t initially have their minds set on sending their children to Catholic schools.
But a brief tour of St. Augustine School in Richmond convinced them they found the right school for their two children, Juliana and Carson.
Little did they know, they also found a family.
“I just felt a really close-knit community and a good connection to the school, and everybody is just so loving and so sweet; I felt it would be impossible to find that anywhere else,” Nikki Jones told Detroit Catholic. “When I say it wasn’t in our plans, I mean we weren’t planning on budgeting for Catholic school. But since Juliana started preschool there, we couldn’t imagine ourselves anywhere else.”
David is Catholic, while Nikki grew up Greek Orthodox, but she was familiar with Catholics growing up and attended a few Catholic liturgies for weddings and funerals.
When she conversed with Catholic friends and attended those occasional liturgies, she felt a pull to the Church, or at least something different than what she was used to experiencing.
“Growing up Greek Orthodox, at the time all the services were done in Greek,” Jones explained. “I don’t speak fluent Greek, so I didn’t understand half of it. But going to a Catholic Mass and being able to understand what they were talking about, telling the stories, understanding what was happening, it made all the difference.”
When the family moved to Richmond and Juliana started going to St. Augustine School, Jones would drop in on the Thursday school Mass at St. Augustine Parish. It was there she got to see the faith passed onto school children, but the liturgies also had a profound impact on Jones.
“I started going to the Thursday school Mass and just loved it,” Jones said. “Every Thursday, me and Carson would join the schoolchildren for Mass when we could. ... I really loved it and the Sunday Masses; the way our pastor talks to us, it’s a level of understanding I never had before growing up. It opened up a door that was closed before simply because I didn’t understand. But the Catholic Mass was simpler, slower, more understandable.”
By the 2023-24 school year, Juliana was in first grade, and the family was getting more integrated into the St. Augustine community. That’s when Jones felt the calling to reach out and see if she could become Catholic.
“I reached out to Fr. Mark (Livingston) and was going through and speaking to another lady, who told me it was possible for me to convert,” Jones said. “But at the same time, it was during Carson's hospitalization, so it got really busy, and it’s been nonstop. So I’ve reached out to them about it (converting), but not yet able to make a move on it.”
Carson was diagnosed with leukemia on Aug. 12, 2023, and since then has been in and out of hospitals receiving treatment.
Carson is now in the first of six cycles of maintenance after receiving five phases of frontline treatment. For the next two and a half years, Carson will undergo six, 84-day cycles of treatment, which involve taking daily oral chemo at home. The first two cycles included different lumbar punctures and trips to the chemo clinic.
Carson has started at-home chemo and is now visiting the doctor every other week to make sure he has the proper dosage, but everything else is the normal routine, Jones said, who adds that Carson is taking the treatment in stride.
However, since his diagnosis, Jones has had to leave her job to be a full-time mom for Carson.
“It sounds like a lot, but compared to the five phases he’s been through, it’s absolutely nothing at all,” Jones said. “We’re just figuring out what dose of chemo his body can take. We got that part done during the summer, so now, going into the school year, he is ready to start pre-K.”
When Carson was first diagnosed, the Jones family was unsure whether they wanted to publicize it, wishing to keep life as normal as possible and not draw too much attention to themselves or their son.
But word did get out, and right away, the school put Carson and the entire family on its prayer list, and people began to reach out.
“The school came forward, and there is just so much I can say — they have been so supportive with different fundraisers for us,” Jones said. “They made t-shirts for Carson that the kids would wear. Every Friday during Mass, Fr. Mark would ways say prayers for Carson. The school organized spaghetti dinners, and the principal reached out to me numerous times with different prayers or little things she has dropped off just to help me get through everything with Carson. The teachers have all been amazing.”
The St. Augustine School community continued to help the Jones family, even sponsoring holiday dinners for the family and dropping off gifts for Carson and Juliana during long stays at the hospital.
Gestures of kindness, big and small, show the Jones family they have a community behind them.
“When you are on the side of receiving the help, you are grateful for it, you feel very fortunate, but there is always this sense of disbelief that people can be so loving and caring and wanting to help our family,” Jones said. “Despite everything going on in the world — and we know there are other people out there who are struggling, too — the fact people take the time to give donations, to help us when we need it, it’s just incredible. The school has been our biggest supporters.”
When Carson was healthy enough to go to school Mass with his mom, the two would often be stopped by members of the St. Augustine community, asking how they were doing and reminding the family they were being prayed for constantly.
“I think the biggest thing that has affected us is everybody praying for him, because I know it’s working,” Jones said. “The outpouring of love makes you realize there are so many good people in the world; it’s been eye-opening, just to see how much our family is loved.”
Jones said the intercessory prayers have been the biggest help, as Juliana is set to begin second grade this year, and Carson is starting preschool.
For whatever hesitancy Jones had about sharing Carson’s diagnosis, she’s glad to know her family has a community on whom they can depend.
“I’m so glad we shared his story because while I feel weird admitting it, we need the prayers and the love and all of it toward Carson,” Jones said. “It makes you feel special to know he’s cared for, that our family is cared for. ... Everybody at this school has been amazing.”
Jones sees her own faith growing, and is still attending the school Mass. She sees her family becoming part of the community, having members of the parish reach out to her about her own faith journey.
It's affirmed her belief that she’s on the right path when she first explored the Catholic Church. And their newfound community has become so much more than just another school.
“I could never see ourselves anywhere else after Juliana’s first year of pre-K, but after this year, too, and the family support, the people here are exactly who they say they are,” Jones said. “I was sad at the end of last year when it was Field Day, seeing the eighth-graders leave. Because when we came to Richmond, we were looking for a school, and what we found was a family.”
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