Friends, family say Kalispell first responder lived life with joy

The loss of a Kalispell woman who died Sunday in a motorcycle crash has devastated, not only the family she left behind, but also the community she served.

A first responder with South Kalispell Fire Department, Abbie Delaney Jones, 35, was killed Sunday afternoon when she and her 11-year-old son T-boned another vehicle that pulled out in front of their motorcycle at the intersection of Montana 35 and Helena Flats Road.

Unable to avoid the SUV in her path, Jones collided with the side of the vehicle, killing her upon impact. Her son survived the crash but sustained a compound fracture in his femur near his hip that required surgery Sunday evening. He has since returned home to recover.

THE MOTHER of four boys was engaged to marry her fiancé, Mike Hedstrom, this September. Jones’s death has turned her entire family’s world upside down, according to her sister, Jessica Smith.

“It went from planning a happy time of adventure, love and fun to a time where we had to say goodbye,” Smith said.

Smith described her sister as a model parent to her own children and a huge influence on her nieces and nephews.

She said her sister knew how to fill every role she was needed in, from best friend to role model.

Much of Jones’s free time was spent organizing, hosting and celebrating family events, from “big ol’ barbecues” to Christmas caroling with all the kids.

“She was a believer in quality, not quantity, family time,” Smith said.

WHEN JONES fell in love with her fiancé, Hedstrom, Smith said her life became a story you might see on a movie screen.

“You don’t see that type of love for an individual unless you see it in Hollywood,” she said. “It wasn’t ‘white picket fence’ when you saw them together…It was a chaotic mess with smiles in between.”

Hedstrom said the two met nine years ago when he handed Jones a cup of coffee while on the job. The two were inseparable from then on and have spent their lives together with a goal of setting an example of how to have fun and make life “a party.”

“Her motto was ‘What’s the point of going on if you can’t have fun,” Hedstrom said of Jones, affectionately known by her nickname, Lady Cocaine.

According to Hedstrom, he said he gave her the nickname because, when the two were “courting,” she was his cocaine.

“I was addicted to her,” he said. “She was the love of my life.”

Jones and Hedstrom shared much of their lives, from their love of motorcycles to their careers as firefighters/EMTs with the South Kalispell Fire Department. They raised their children and lived the normal side of life, but did so with their own flair.

Hedstrom said together they were “shock and awe,” going out of their way to turn heads and keep people laughing and staring.

“I was the luckiest man in the world. I still am to have been with her for nine years,” he said.

One of the couple’s longtime friends, Lisa Pooler, described them as “wonderful, giving people” who went beyond their normal call of duty.

The pair volunteered their spare time as on-scene medics for the Flathead Valley Roller Derby.

Pooler recalled a time when, after winning a large amount of money in a raffle, Hedstrom went so far as to donate every penny of his winnings to a roller derby skater who had suffered a major head injury and needed help paying for medical treatment.

“The love those two had for each other was just amazing,” Pooler said.

FOLLOWING HER years of service as one of Kalispell’s first responders, Jones’s fire chief, Chris Yerkes, said the department lost a valuable asset when it lost Jones.

As a firefighter, Yerkes said Jones was always eager to train and help, and had taken many young firefighters under her wing.

“She was definitely a free spirit. She could light up a room any time she walked in and was always smiling,” Yerkes said. “No matter how crappy a day you were having, it always got better when Abbie walked in the room.”

During her time with the department, she served as a firefighter, an EMT and both the secretary and treasurer of the department’s volunteer firefighter organization.

In other words, Yerkes said, she was usually the one handling the kinds of tragedies that ended her own life.

“It’s been tough. For most of us, it’s like losing a family member,” Yerkes said. “We’re all taking it pretty hard, but we’re sticking together and we’ll get through.”

HEDSTROM SAID that though he has felt the loneliness and loss of his love, he knows she is still with him and can feel her pushing him to go on living the way they always did.

Though Smith said she and the rest of her family are struggling with some feelings of anger, she said those feelings are mostly directed toward the drivers who fail to share the road with bikers like she and her sister.

“In the beginning, I was upset because people just don’t watch for us,” she said. “We’re not pawns out there to take out whenever you choose to.”

Still, she said, Jones knew, as all bikers know, the risk involved with riding, and she took that chance willingly out of her love of the freedom and beauty of the ride.

Toward the woman driving the vehicle involved in her sister’s accident, Smith said she feels only sympathy, knowing how the wreck must affect she and her own family, as well.

As a family that rides together, Smith said she and her loved ones have learned the importance of sticking together and protecting each other in light of Jones’s death.

“Enjoy the time you have with the ones you love. She wouldn’t want us to take things for granted,” she said.

Yerkes said that the family is planning a large party for the day in September originally scheduled for Jones’ wedding. The party will provide friends and family a way to celebrate Jones’s life and say goodbye.

In honor of Jones, the public is invited to attend a motorcycle safety awareness benefit July 21 in Columbia Falls.

The event will consist of a rock concert from 7 p.m. to midnight at the Coop and will offer guests access to music, a beer garden and food trucks for a $5 cover charge.

All proceeds raised over the course of the night will go toward the Abbie Delaney Jones Fund.

For information on the benefit, call (406) 407-6791 or email joeleone98@yahoo.com.

Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.