"I came unglued. I cried and cried," Jones said. "It was a shock to get my very first written communication from him ever, and it was an e-mail, of all things."
Jones, who was serving the chancellor as assistant for equal opportunity at the time, had counseled her father to stay busy after her mother died in 1991.
"He was lonesome. He had nothing to do … so I said, 'Go back to school,'" Jones said.
A woman for whom R.G. did yard work in his hometown of Longview, Texas, recommended the East Texas Literacy Council. It was his tutor there who had him first write out in longhand the message he wanted to send his daughter in Alaska, then type it on the computer keyboard.
"It was a simple message, really, just a couple of lines,," Jones said. "And at the end of the message the tutor wrote, 'R.G. did this all by himself!'"
Jones said he told her later that when he put his hands on the keyboard the first key he hit was a P. He held it down, not anticipating the effect that would have, until there was a whole string of P's.
"He got all upset because he thought he broke it. He told me he’d 'P'd' all over it!"
