Alice was the greatest mother to James. She worked at the local utility company in a town close to where she lived. When James was born, she took him to work with her, collecting payments for area customers for their utility bills. James got proficient in counting monies and writing out receipts before he started school.
   Alice would sent homemade cakes and treats to school with James, whenever there was a special event or class activity. She made homemade meals every night and even go up and cooked breakfast for James to eat before school.
   Alice was fearless and independent, able to do anything that she put her mind to. James has a lot of those characteristics from his mother. Alice loved James with everything in her, and she loved Jarrod more that anything in her life.
   When James and Debra had been married for a few months, Alice was found unconscious in her back yard. Alice had collapsed getting from the carport to the house and was found several hours later by a neighbor. Alice was taken to the hospital and was found to have pneumonia. The pneumonia was so severe that it could only be treated with surgery. Alice came through the surgery with great success, unfortunately her kidneys failed and she would require dialysis for the rest of her life.
   Alice was discharged from the hospital in October 1989 and came to live with James and Debra. Alice needed someone to assist her for a while, due to the large lung surgery that she had just undergone at the end of September. Alice was also now dealing with the loss of her kidney function and she was requiring dialysis 3 times a week.
   Alice was living with us when James and Debra had their first wedding anniversary. Debra had taken the day off and was home removing wall paper from the hallway. ( It was there when we bought the house). Alice, still weak from surgery and dialysis, had sat in a chair all day in the hallway, supervising the wallpaper removal process. James gets home from work (he is still working at Cherokee Memorial Hospital) and sees the work that Debra had been doing all day. James asks Debra where she would like to go for dinner, since it was our first anniversary. Alice,still sitting in her supervisor chair- announces that she would love to go to Red Lobster and get seafood. Debra reminded Alice that it was our first anniversary, thinking that Alice would realize that James and Debra might like a romantic dinner out to celebrate. Alice announces that she can be ready to go in a few minutes to help James and Debra celebrate. We all got ready and went to Red Lobster for our anniversary.

   Alice continue to deal with the physical and emotional stresses of dialysis. At the end of her life, the dialysis had caused damage to the valves in her heart and she needed to have valves replaced. Without hesitation, Alice agreed to have the surgery in an attempt to prolong her life, so that she could be available for James, Debra and  Jarrod. Unfortunately, Alice did not do well with the open heart surgery and died 3 weeks after the surgery was performed.