Mona Foote

Mona Foote died peacefully at home June 11, 2016 after suffering for many years from the effects of Lyme disease. She was 64 years old.

Born March 2, 1952 in Grand unction, CO, she was the daughter of Gene and Geneva Hicks. Mona attended Grand Junction High School where she met her best friend, Paula. She fell in love with and married John Foote in 1968 and was lovingly welcomed by his parents, Steve and Virginia. Sheʼd always adored children and was a champion mother to kids Michelle and Jake, always advocating for their health and happiness.

Mona was very active even before learning to drive at the age of 22. She walked everywhere with her kids, to swimming pools, the library, and even to visit people in nursing homes they didnʼt know. Thatʼs the amazing woman she was. She followed John on his construction job sites until the family settled in Palisade in 1973. She made the house a home and finished it with lovely flower gardens. She was very artistic and learned to do stained glass. This led to her business designing and making stained glass windows for several years and a studio in downtown Palisade when it was mostly a community of old farmers. She later moved her studio to a building on her own property and installed a colorful sunbeam window in it.

As a child she loved visiting her grandparents on their farm in Eldorado, Oklahoma. She was fond of animals and had many. Mona was compassion personified. She performed surgery on chickens, sewing their heads back on after dogs bit them off. She worked early morning shifts as a midwife at the lambing shed down the road, coming home very dirty afterwards.

Mona took the time to get to know some of the migrant workers in her neighborhood. The friendships with those families continue to this day and allowed her family the opportunity to visit their homes in non-touristy parts of Mexico. They have expressed extreme gratitude for her giving heart; her love and influence is still being felt by their children and grandchildren and many other people young and old whose lives she touched.

Mona was an outdoorsy woman before it was common. She would walk and hike for miles and miles, alone or with her many great friends. Her best partner was her tough little terrier, Buster. She bicycled, swam, ran, cross-country, skied, and worshipped the sun. She had many wonderful times house boating at Lake Powell, and got to do a river trip down the Grand Canyon.

Mona was constantly learning new things and always had an interesting story to tell. She read and educated herself, got her GED and earned a college degree in Travel and Recreation Management. She studied Spanish in college and continued to practice it afterward.

She fulfilled her dream of having a parrot and developed a very special relationship wit Bert, her Blue Front Amazon and Pete, her African Grey.
She expressed her artistic talents working at Jacʼs Flowers, fed her passion for people and nature at Piney River Guest Ranch in Vail, and learned loads about health and nutrition while working at Sundrop Grocery. Thatʼs when her cooking skills really took off, and her gardening skills flourished. Her yard was the favorite on the Garden Tour one year- sheʼd even painted flowers on the garage!

She helped two special little girls get off to a great start in life, one was the second generation to have her as a caretaker.
Mona noticed her health beginning to decline around the age of 40. She continued to search for the cause and a cure for the rest of her life as her fibromyalgia pain and disfiguring rheumatoid arthritis worsened. She was very grateful to Dr. Manuel Lazo for finally giving her the correct diagnosis of Lyme disease in 2013. She appreciated the many friends and practitioners through the years who were kind and caring and tried to
help her including chiropractors Jeff McCloskey and Katinka Van Der Merwe and Dr. Scott Rollins. She didnʼt give up hope until this spring.

Mona loved without measure her family, her friends, and this beautiful earth. She is survived by her husband John, son Jake, daughter Michelle,         son-in-law Todd Widegren, mother Geneva, brothers Danny and Randy, eight special nieces and nephews, goddaughter Mariah, and many dear friends.

Recent notes have said “she helped shape who I am today”, “I donʼt think Iʼd be here if it wasnʼt for her generosity”, “she changed us in ways that made us better people”, “I was able to do and learn so many things because of her”, “what I learned from her I teach my kids”, and called her “so very beautiful, in every way”, “the spirit of life”, “one of my favorite people in the world”, “a beautiful soul that touched my life in a powerful way”...

No memorial services will be held at this time at Monaʼs request. If you wish to make a memorial contribution,  she asked that you simply do something nice for someone else. What gave her the most joy in life was helping other people and for many years she was unable to.

Morning has broken, rejoice that she is out of pain!