MATHISTON — Small towns and large families can create unbreakable bonds. Everyone in Mathiston knew Jen Hodges Gazaway. Her mom and dad were both from large families. She was a graduate of East Webster High School. Her brother lived around the corner from her.
Jen had operated both a hair salon and a cleaning service. Her bright smile, outgoing personality and bubbly laugh made her easy to recognize wherever she went. She helped out at the family’s Hot Spot BBQ in Pheba on Saturdays and enjoyed meeting people.
When she went into the hospital in the summer of 2018 for what was scheduled to be a routine surgery, her family was there to support her. It was to be a simple procedure that only required a one-night stay in the hospital; family and friends had food and care covered. Then things took a bad turn and two days after the initial surgery her doctor prepared her for exploratory surgery to find the cause.
Back in her room after the surgery, her husband was standing by her bed as a nurse adjusted the window blinds. He saw Jen’s eyes roll back in her head and the signals on the monitors went flat. He turned to the nurse and asked if this was OK; the nurse immediately sent him out of the room and called for help. Jen had gone into septic shock, then cardiac arrest.
Jen and husband Tim are members of the Church of God in Maben. The Rev. Brian Wells is her pastor, and he and his wife cut their vacation short to get back to minister to the family.
While the medical team worked on Jen, Tim began calling family members to come to the hospital. For eight minutes Jen Gazaway was dead. The medical team revived her with CPR. She was airlifted to North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo. Later the same day, as her fever rose to 106, she died again and a defibrillator brought her back. And then again, her heart stopped and the defibrillator again revived her.
She spent 18 days in intensive care in a coma, on life support and dialysis. Food poured in from family and friends. A motel room was paid for by friends. They took turns waiting for visiting hours and going back to the room to shower or nap.
Several times nurses talked to the family about withdrawing life support and letting Jen go, but they didn’t agree. Jen’s family insisted she be transferred to Jackson to University Medical Center.
By then, signs were appearing in the community that said “Pray for Jen.” Her cousin B.J. McCarter and aunt Martha Gail Stafford were the driving force behind them. A Facebook page titled “Prayers for Jen” was set up. T-shirts were printed and sold to help out. The small community of Mathiston united behind one of its own and prayer chains formed.
A team of doctors met her in Jackson and she went into another ICU. She was still in a coma and on a ventilator, and they swapped it for a tracheotomy. Each morning her team of doctors met and prayed with her. When they stopped their daily prayer ritual, her family realized that the doctors knew she was going to make it.
Psalms 118: 17 says “I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done.” That verse was prayed over Jen by Linda Young of Maben. It became Jen’s mantra.
A wound vacuum helped resolve the infection issues. Jen was released to Methodist Rehab and physical therapy. They told her that for every day she had spent in bed, it would take three to get her back on her feet. But 64 days after entering the hospital, she beat the odds and came home.
In the meantime, her daughter, Ceilie Grimsley, was starting college at East Mississippi Community College and helping her little brother get started back to East Webster. Aunts, uncles, cousins and friends all made it possible for things to stay on schedule.
“My family never left me alone. There was always someone there with me,” Jen remembers.
She also remembers returning to Jackson to have the wound vac removed. Her brother had been hospitalized with pancreatitis and was in the hospital in Tupelo. When they finished the doctor’s appointment, Jen told Tim that she wanted to go see her brother. It made for a long day, but Tim was happy to oblige.
It was the last time she would see her only sibling, as he died that night. That loss, coupled with the recovery, changed Jen. Her smile is quick but not quite as bright as before; she has short-term memory problems and sleeps much more than she used to.
Home health care and physical therapy have helped, but she knows she is going through depression over the loss of her brother and the trauma to her body. Still, she’s determined to get back to her old self.
Her niece, Jacie Drew Hodges, is 6 and close to her aunt. She was used to being in and out of her Aunt Jen’s home and knew angels were in the waiting room at the hospital. But she still needed to see Aunt Jen’s face. She was eventually smuggled into the hospital to see Aunt Jen for that reassurance. Since her father’s death, Jacie’s family has moved to Pontotoc, but Jacie tries to spend all her spare time in Mathiston, with Aunt Jen.
“My family never left me,” Jen repeats. “I was never alone.”
Her family and her community continue to support her as she travels the road to recovery. The “Hometown Hero” was honored by serving as grand marshal of the 2019 Mathiston Christmas Parade on Dec. 6.
“I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done” is the message Jen wants to spread.
