Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ mother, Jacklyn Gise Bezos, has died following a battle with Lewy body dementia, he announced on Instagram. She was 78.
Gise Bezos died in her Miami home on Thursday, according to the Bezos Scholars Program, a foundation she started with her husband, Mike Bezos.
“After a long fight with Lewy Body Dementia, she passed away today, surrounded by so many of us who loved her — her kids, grandkids, and my dad,” Bezos, her eldest son, wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday. “I know she felt our love in those final moments.”
Lewy body dementia is a type of dementia in which protein bodies called Lewy bodies develop in the brain’s nerve cells, impacting the regions involved in movement, memory and thinking, according to the Mayo Clinic.
“Lewy body dementia causes a decline in mental abilities that gradually gets worse over time,” the Mayo Clinic said. “People with LBD might see things that aren’t there, known as visual hallucinations. They also may have changes in alertness and attention.”
Other symptoms of LBD include slowed movement, confusion, depression and memory loss, according to the Mayo Clinic. It is the second most common type of the dementia after Alzheimer’s.
Gise Bezos was born in Washington D.C. and eventually moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico with her family, according to the Bezos Scholars Program. She had her first child, Jeff, when she was in high school at the age of 17.
“As a young, single mom, Jackie was relentless — taking night school classes following high school and working in a bank by day,” the foundation said in their announcement of her death. “Her shift overlapped with a young Cuban immigrant who worked the night shift named Miguel (Mike) Bezos. The two fell in love and were married on April 5th, 1968, in what would be the beginning of a deep lifelong partnership across every aspect of their lives.”
The couple had two children together, Christina and Mark, and Gise Bezos “dedicated her life to her family and poured her heart into raising her children with compassion, patience, and wisdom,” the foundation said.
In his statement on her death, Bezos highlighted that his mother’s adulthood started early because she had him young.
“That couldn’t have been easy, but she made it all work,” Bezos wrote. “She pounced on the job of loving me with ferocity, brought my amazing dad onto the team a few years later, and then added my sister and brother to her list of people to love, guard, and nourish. For the rest of her life, that list of people to love never stopped growing. She always gave so much more than she ever asked for.”
But Gise Bezos was also dedicated to education. At the age of 45 in 1991, she went back to school and earned a Bachelor of Arts from Saint Elizabeth University in New Jersey.
“Returning to college as an adult and pursuing her own education was just another example of Jackie’s determination and grace,” the foundation said. “Her commitment to personal growth was an inspiration to all who knew her and a powerful reminder that it’s never too late to follow your dreams.”
In 2000, Gise Bezos founded the Bezos Family Foundation with her husband, children and their families, and in 2005, they founded the Bezos Scholars Program, helping to offer leadership development programs to outstanding students from the U.S. to Africa, per their website.
Gise Bezos’ death comes just shy of two months after her billionaire son married Lauren Sánchez in Italy. The lavish events celebrating the couple were attended by Oprah, Queen Rania of Jordan, Ivanka Trump and many other VIPs.
“We were all so lucky to be in her life,” Bezos wrote about his mother. “I hold her safe in my heart forever.”
“I love you, mom.”
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