Jean Prevol

Jean Prevol was born on April 22, 1935 to Edward Robert Prevol and Mary Emma McCall in Harlowtown, MT. She attended Harlowtown High School (like her mother), and from there went on college in Montana. She went out for every sport, from swimming and basketball to softball and tumbling. She credited her stepfather Clayton E. Reed and her grandmother Gow-Gow (Edith Eleanor [Dwyer] McCall) with getting her through her teens intact. She met and married David Mason Tranberg while she was in college, and had four children. Robert Mason, Geri Elizabeth, David Clayton and Mary Denise.

After a divorce when the older children were in their teens, she started working for the State of Colorado raising her children on a limited income. She continued working until she retired in 1995.

Jean inherited a passion and talent for painting from her mother, Mary, and after her retirement she was finally given the time to indulge this talent. She produced some very good paintings, and was beginning to sell them professionally when her parents, Mary and Clay, got sick.

Jean was the primary caregiver for both of her parents as their health started to deteriorate, and she was there for her mother when her father Clayton died. Jean spent the next 18 months chauffeuring her mother to doctor's appointments, washing her clothes and generally taking care of all of her needs outside of the basic food and shelter that Mary was getting from the nursing home.

About 6 months before Mary passed away, Jean discovered that she had breast cancer. She handled this exactly how she had handled all of the other battles in her life, she met it head-on. She started walking religiously, taking all of the medicine that her doctors prescribed, and generally doing everything that she could to beat it. In the follow-up tests for the breast cancer, it was discovered that she also had advanced lung cancer. (This was a surprise as she had not been feeling any pain).

Again, she did everything that her doctors said, approaching the fight and life with a positive attitude and a will to survive. Unfortunately, the cancer eventually overcame even her incredible strong-will and her all too human body.

In the last months of her life, she was privileged to witness her youngest daughter, Denise, receive her Master's degree in Telecommunications; she received a sunflower painted by her granddaughter, Mary, that filled her with pride; she was able to hear Mary and Mary's brother, Danny, sing and play guitar for her; she heard a CD from her son, David, and grand-children in Atlanta and was able to meet and hold her great grand-daughter, Elaina.

Jean is survived by four children, eleven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

We, her children and extended family, are awed by all her accomplishments. Her strength and courage will always inspire us. No matter how difficult the challenge, she did her best to overcome it. She strove to become a more fulfilled, caring and outgoing person with every passing year. She has taught us so much by her example and we will miss her so much.

In lieu of flowers, please send a contribution to a cancer charity of your choice or select from the list below. Following is a short list of the foundations that were a ray of hope for Jean and all like her.

http://hospiceofsaintjohn.org/standard.php?id=50 The Hospice of Saint John was literally a lifeline for our family. They enabled our mother to remain at home where she was comfortable while at the same time providing us with a safety net of support. They provided medical care in the form of her nurse Patricia and personal care in the form of her C.N.A. Autumn as well as 24 hour support for when we just didn't know what to do for her in the middle of the night. We don't know what we would have done without them, and are glad that we didn't have to discover the answer.
http://www.projectangelheart.org/ Balanced, healthy, tasty meals delivered to her home when she was too tired and sick to fix food herself.
http://www.ccrgonline.org/Adults/Social.htm Fly fishing, tickets to musicals with family..fun
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/home/index.asp American Cancer Society… "Looking good feeling better" was a workshop that she attended that taught her how to use makeup to make herself feel that loosing her hair had little to do with how she looked.