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Community raising money for young man's funeral
BY GINA HAMILTON • CONTRIBUTING WRITER
MILLBORO - Shock and tears mingled in this community Sunday morning, Nov. 11, as residents learned of the death of John Mace after an epileptic seizure. He was just 19 years old.
Despite a difficult family situation - his father, Joseph B. Mace Sr., died when John was two years old and his mother is disabled - John was known as a friend to everyone he met. "He always had a smile on his face," said Betty Mace, the wife of John's halfbrother J.B. Mace, also of Millboro. "He was a really good kid; he had a ton of friends and was friends with everyone," she said Monday evening, as friends filled the living room at the home John shared with his mother, Sharon Rose Mace, on T.C. Walker Road.
Neighbors came together to plan fund-raisers to help the family with funeral expenses. A 50/50 raffle is in progress and a cake walk is being organized.
As Rose Mace sat quietly on the couch, listening to her friends, Betty Mace recalled that John was diagnosed with teenage-onset epilepsy three years ago and was on medication. He was able to continue with high school, graduating from Bath County High School this year, and the activities he enjoyed in the outdoors, riding fourwheelers, hunting and other sports. In school, he liked woodworking. According to Betty Mace, he had not decided what to do for the future.
"John was very much an outdoors person," she said. "A lot of times he went with friends - most of them friends from kindergarten." Fighting tears, she said, "This was so totally unexpected," noting John was devoted to his widowed mother.
She encourages those who knew John to remember him has having lived life to the fullest. "John didn't know any strangers," she said.
The funeral was held Wednesday at the McLaughlin Funeral Home in Hot Springs with the Rev. John Green officiating, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Millboro Springs, where John and his mother were members.
Donations to help the family with funeral expenses can be made to: The John Mace Memorial Fund, First National Bank, 2812 Main St., P.O. Box 7, Hot Springs, Va. 24445.
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