It was a Thursday night in early July when Colleen Jones and I found ourselves tucked away in her living room on Newton Avenue in Halifax. The golden sunset was filtering through the blinds. The air was still. It was calm and peaceful. Colleen’s home is a shrine to curling, to her sons Luke and Zach, husband Scott and grandson, and on the shelves and end tables throughout the house you’ll find books about mastering how to live forever and get the most out of life. On the mantle above the fireplace there’s a framed quote: Always believe something wonderful is about to happen.Colleen was lying on the floor with a pillow tucked behind her head, a blanket draped over her, her legs pointed up the wall to stretch. Just a month earlier Colleen had received emergency hip replacement surgery; she had crutches but refused to use them, hellbent on building back her strength to not only walk normally again, but get back on ice. “Let’s continue our interview,” she said to me from across the room. Earlier that day I had traveled to the hospital with Colleen for what would be one of her last chemotherapy appointments. We started our conversation there at her insistence. WATCH | Remembering Colleen Jones:Remembering the life of Canadian curling legend Colleen JonesThe two-time world champion and six-time national champion curler and CBC reporter died at the age of 65, following a bout with cancer.“You do have to surrender to the process,” she said. “In life, no matter what it is, you really don’t have a lot of control. You can’t guarantee you’re going to live to tomorrow. You’ve only got today, so surrender to today, enjoy today, enjoy the lattes, enjoy everything you’re doing.”Colleen Jones was a tour de force. She believed deeply in the power of positive thought, manifestation and having a spiritual practice, whatever that looked like to you. It’s why, on the side of her reading glasses, she taped words like miracle, love and surrender – little reminders and cues to keep her focused on defeating her next opponent, which just so happened to be cancer.What many people haven’t known until now is that Colleen was diagnosed with cancer nearly three years ago. I remember when she called to tell me. In her very Colleen-like way, about halfway through that call, she shared her news that she had cancer, and that she didn’t know many details and then we were back to talking about curling. On with the show, on with getting back to living. Not once throughout these past 32 months had Colleen stopped living her life to the fullest. She didn’t want anyone knowing what she was battling, in a lot of ways to protect those closest to her. She didn’t want her last days, however many she had, to be consumed by having to answer questions about how she was doing, and she certainly didn’t want her family to have to answer those same questions. I asked her during that chemo appointment if she had allowed herself to be afraid at all. Colleen didn’t flinch in her response.“No, and that is the curling training,” she said. “That was all the years of working with Ken Bagnell to stay in the moment for your shot. And now the shot’s changed, but stay in the moment and keep visualizing.”Devin Heroux and Colleen Jones. (Devin Heroux/CBC)Colleen tackled this bout with cancer the same way she approached the most significant curling games in her life – and she played in many of them, won many of them, and never surrendered until the final stone came to rest.She overperformed in this battle too. In a lot of ways, Colleen was ahead of her time in her approach to curling. Bagnell was a sports psychologist she enlisted to help her push past the fear of not performing under pressure. Nobody was using a sports psychologist then in curling. Now it’s the norm. She trained in the gym year-round when curlers didn’t really have fitness plans. Colleen meditated and visualized. She was always talking about what foods to eat and nutrition to stay energized through 10 ends of curling. She wanted to teach her sons how to be champions in their own lives.“The reason why I kind of competed and competed well was to show them, first off, that playing sports is fun,” she said. “And secondly, competing well is a true mark of a champion.“I guess everybody wants their kid to be a bit proud of them.”Colleen with son Luke at the 1999 world championships in Saint John, N.B. (Canadian Press)People who are in her inner circle also know that on the nights before important curling games she would fall asleep to the movie Gladiator.“It put me to sleep at night. Yeah, it was very soothing,” she said. “Nobody could kill him and I wanted to channel that on the ice. We brought the VHS with us and the machine to all the events. The hotels usually had a machine but we brought one just in case. It was poor Kim [Kelly] who had to watch it with me because we roomed together.”They also always had to listen to Bruce Springsteen on the way to the arena; Colleen saw Springsteen live in concert nine times. Some of her favourite songs were Thunder Road, My City of Ruins, Waitin’ on a Sunny Day, and Dream Baby Dream. She lived by his lyrics. Colleen had a preshot routine as she chewed her gum: go behind the hack, take a drink of water and really focus in on the moment. Her steely-eyed focus was one of her trademarks. She was nearly bullet-proof on the ice because of all the work she did away from it. Being fearful of the biggest moments wasn’t an option. And she certainly wasn’t going to let uncertainty creep in when it came to her cancer diagnosis. “I wasn’t going to win if there was a shred of doubt. We wouldn’t have won. I needed to stay strong for the team because they stayed strong. This is the same vibe, exact same vibe. I have people to live for at the moment, things to do, and I’m going to stay focused on those things.” I hope people remember the tenaciousness. And hopefully it showed other people what’s possible.- Colleen JonesColleen was not only the skip to her curling teams over more than five decades, she was the skip in all facets of her life. In the best ways, it was Colleen’s world and those who were lucky enough to be wrapped up in her orbit were acutely aware she was calling the shots. There were three things that were of utmost importance to Colleen: family, curling and her career. “I made sure the mom and career part were solid. But the curling part was the one I would have short-changed. So could I have won more titles, especially in the ‘90s if I had worked a little bit harder? I always felt I was doing adequately well at all of them and getting through each day but without a doubt the thing I cheated the most — even though we were practicing a lot — was curling.”For as much as she cheated on curling, Colleen accomplished so much in the sport. She wouldn’t love me listing all of it — and so I won’t — but I did ask her about what she was most proud of. Jones celebrates the 1999 Tournament of Hearts championship with teammates Nancy Delahunt and Kim Kelly. (Canadian Press)“That gap,” she said. “The 17 years between my first Scotties win in 1982 and the next one in 1999. Never give up and keep persevering. And enjoy the game. You have to love the ride and the agony of defeat and the thrill of winning.“I hope people remember the tenaciousness. And hopefully it showed other people what’s possible.”Colleen burst on the curling scene in 1982 when she won that first Scotties title in Regina, doing so alongside her two sisters, Barb and Monica, as well as Kay Smith. She was just 22, making her the youngest skip in the history of the event to win a title. Then she won it again in 1999, followed by a string of four consecutive titles from 2001 to 2004. The team was unstoppable. Nova Scotia was on the curling map, something that made Colleen extremely proud. She loved her province. Colleen, Kim Kelly, Mary-Ann Arsenault and Nancy Delahunt racked up the wins and titles – they would also capture two world championships during that run. In the end, Colleen won national titles in five different decades, starting with a silver medal at the 1979 Canada Games. She won six Scotties titles, two world titles, two national mixed titles, a Canadian and world senior championship. She either played in or coached at every major curling event. You’ll never meet someone as committed to the sport as Colleen Jones. For her efforts over a lifetime of curling she was inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame and the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame. She was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2022. Colleen Jones receives her Order of Canada in 2024 from Governor General Mary Simon. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)And yet what made Colleen light up the most were the victories she shared with her son, Luke, as his team’s coach. She took her job behind the bench as coach of Nova Scotia’s Team Purcell, with Luke at third, very seriously. You can imagine her pride and joy when the team qualified for the playoffs at last year’s Brier in Kelowna — the first Nova Scotia team to qualify for the playoffs in two decades.With tears in her eyes coach Colleen, wearing her Nova Scotia jacket with Jones on the back, wrapped her arms around Luke. They had done it. “That was the most meaningful curling year, under the circumstances of knowing I was having chemo, knowing I got strong enough for that and that the doctors allowed it,” Colleen said. “When they made the playoffs it was so wonderfully surprising and they had to play their best curling. “For Luke to know what I was going through and be the only one with that information was something. And then I watched each of them go hug their parents and it was just as great to see knowing we were tapping into this inner strength of all of the hard things their families had been through.”Just like she had done with her own team through all those wins, Colleen got this young team believing they could be great. And it was that mental toughness and belief that fueled them to that Brier playoff berth.The truth is when you were with Colleen you felt invincible and that anything was possible. She made you a believer.Covered 9 Olympics for CBCFor as well-known as she was for being a curler, many others knew Colleen through her broadcasting on CBC. She loved being out in the community and connecting with others, fascinated by how they thought and how they lived. It wasn’t work for Colleen, she saw it as a chance to learn about others and then apply that to her own life. She covered nine Olympics for the public broadcaster starting in 1988 at the Seoul Games. “And those were a thrill. Those are every bit, I think, as dramatic and fun and interesting as a curling game,” she said. There will never be another Colleen Jones. What you saw from her on the ice, during her CBC broadcasts or when bumping into her at the local coffee shop was who she was. Colleen was bombastic and sometimes quirky. Conversations with her were never dull and always winding from one thing to the next. I’ve lost track of how many times people would come up to me after talking with Colleen and saying I never thought I’d talk about that with someone, but here we are. Devin and Colleen wrap up another episode of That Curling Show. (Devin Heroux/CBC Sports)Co-hosting That Curling Show with Colleen for three years was one of the honours of my career. Each show was a new adventure and I wasn’t really quite sure what she was about to say next. And when she’d bring out her whiteboards to spell out complicated things, fans were riveted. I’ve never laughed with anyone like I laughed with Colleen. We traveled to all parts of Canada and places around the globe watching curling together. We would cackle over the most ridiculous things, like belly laugh when your abs hurt and you’re breathless. I’m going to miss that so much. And I’m going to miss Colleen’s infectious energy, her little notes when I needed them most about focusing on the moment and always doing your best.“Let it go, let it flow, just get on your bike, go for a ride or walk it out. Movement is medicine and so is self talk and that self talk has gotta be really positive, fairly spiritual. And believe in miracles, love can make a difference and other people teach you the lessons you still need to be taught,” Colleen said as we ended our interview. “They appear when you’re ready and you have to be open to it. You should stay open to it all the time and the messages will come in loud and clear.”Mostly, like the quote framed in her home, Colleen would want us all to continue to always believe something wonderful is about to happen. It’s how she lived her life.
Colleen Jones was something wonderful to happen for anyone who knew her
