The End

"Thank you all for coming."  he says, straightening his jacket and tie, standing in front of a packed funeral home that was standing room only.  


"This means the world to me that you're all here and I know it would mean the world to Beth too."  Jon takes a deep breath and clears his throat.  "We're all here to celebrate the life of my wife.  My best friend, my rock, my Beth Ann."

Another deep breath as he reaches for his handkerchief from his jacket breast pocket.  "I know that some of you have formed an opinion on her manner of death, and you're entitled to that.  I'm not going to stand up here and try to pretend that she didn't end her own life, because that's exactly what she did."  Jon inhales slowly through his nose, exhaling slowly out his mouth, tears flowing down his cheeks at the rate of a slow leaking faucet. "She thought that there was no other way to put a stop to the torture that she thought we were under."  He wipes his eyes as he shifts his weight, feeling his feet going to sleep because his legs were locked too long.  "She was an amazing woman with a heart of gold and a soul as pure at the driven snow.  She was a wonderful wife, mother, step mother and friend."

He scans the crowd, looking at the many faces that didn't hide the falling tears.  His gaze fixes upon Tammy, Beth's old friend and assistant.  Seeing her hurt him.  He knows how hard all of this had to be for her.  Tammy and Beth were tight, very tight having been to hell and back together as friends.  In his time of grief, he never even thought of her and now he feels a little bad that he didn't reach out to her.  "Beth wouldn't have left her family if she thought there was another option.  We tried everything that we could to make the problems go away, but even after a little time, they tended to resurface."  Jon has to wipe his eyes again, "She did all that she could to protect her family, to protect those that she loved the most."

A momentary pause, "Beth Ann loved life.  She loved the life that we had, she loved her children, my children and they all loved her just as much.  Her last act was done purely out of love and I need to accept that."  His eyes scan the room again as he reaches for the bottle of water that was under the podium.  After he takes a slow refreshing sip, his heart in his throat, "She was pregnant with our baby and in her final act, she took the baby with her.  Yes, it was my child, so please stop speculating about that.  She wouldn't want to be remembered for that, she wouldn't want to be remembered for taking her own life."  Another small sip, wiping his eyes, "She was the love of my life and I am broken without her.  She was my everything, she was my only thing.  She drove me crazy and loved me like no other.  Her smile would lighten any room that she ever walked into.  She was a woman with class, a woman with sass and if you knew her, you know exactly what I'm talking about."

Steading his stance again, running his fingers through his hair he's startled when he hears a screech that said, "Mommy!"  Just then Brianna hopped off of her chair and ran to the casket, peeking over the edge at her mother.  Jon set his handkerchief on the podium, turns around and grabs Brianna.  "mommy." she squeals again.  Jon, with Brianna in his arms stands there and lets his daughter look down at her mother.  When Beth doesn't move, Brianna looks at Jon.  Jon can't control the tears, he can't control the heartache any more. Slowly, he falls to his knees with his daughter in his arms.  Lunetta jumps into action and tries to aid Jon with his daughter.  Those that are there to pay their respects to Beth are in shock, no one is sure what to do.

"Let me take her Jon."  Pete says, with her hand on Jon's shoulder.  "I'll take them downstairs."

Jon shakes his head no, "I'm okay.  She needs to see her."

"Mommy, tiss."  Brianna exclaims, leaning over trying to his her mother.  "Tiss!"  Jon holds his daughter as she leaning over and kisses her mommy on the head.  When Beth doesn't move, Brianna looks at Jon, "Mommy, night night?"

Jon smiles at her, tears rolling down his cheeks, "Mommy is sleeping."  His sobs get louder as he holds his daughter close, not wanting to let her go.

After a few moments, Brianna was onto other things.  Lupetta took her and Jon Spencer downstairs to a small kitchen area in the funeral home and Jon took his place back in front of the podium.  "Sorry about that."  He wipes away the tears that fell from his eyes and nose.  "That's the first time she has seen her mother since she died."  He could hear the family and friends gasp like that was the saddest thing they have ever heard.  "If you knew how much Beth loved her and Jon Spencer, you wouldn't be mad at her.  You'd understand why she did what she did.  She gave the ultimate sacrifice for her children, for my children and for me."  Standing up straighter and looking at everyone in the room, he adds, "She never would have left them without a mother if she thought there was another way."  He can't take it, he leans on the podium and looks to Richie.  Richie knows what that look means, so he did what the look told him to do.

"I'll take it from here."  Richie says, taking his place next to Jon.  "Go sit down, I got this."  he pats his friend on the back and Jon does what he was told to do.  He takes a seat next to Stephanie and all eyes then go to Richie.  "Like Jon said, thank you for coming.  I was hoping that I would get the chance to speak, in her memory, in her honor."  Richie firms his stand and continues, "She was an amazing woman that gave my best friend and their family all that she had.  She was a firecracker that always kept me on my toes."  Richie's tears started to fall from his eyes, "I told myself that I wasn't going to cry, but that's impossible.  She meant the world to anyone that knew her.  She will be forever missed by me and by everyone else."  With the back of his hand, he wipes away tears from his right cheek and continues, "She leaves behind beautiful children, amazing step children and a husband that loved her to the moon."  Richie's feeling a little more emotion that he thought and at first wanted to hide it, but it became to powerful for him to overcome.  "She was one of a kind, that's for sure.  She could make you love her and she could make you hate her, but you always knew where you stood with her.  If she didn't like you - you knew it and you knew why.  If you were fucking off, she would tell you.  If she was happy with you and loved you - she showed it all of the time."  He takes a second to try to compose himself, looking over at Jon only makes it worse for him, "She did what she thought she needed to do to protect her family, and Beth stopped at nothing to save her family from anything negative or anything harmful.  But I know in my heart, in my body and with my soul that she thought there was no other way to make it all stop.  These people continually hurt her, they continually tortured her and when she had enough, she did what she thought was best.  I'm not sure if maybe she thought that the stalking and all of the nonsense would stop if she was gone?  I guess we'll never know and knowing won't change the fact that she's gone."  he wipes away more tears and takes a sip from the bottle of water that Jon left, "I know that I'll keep her memory alive and when her kids are old enough to talk about her and have questions, I'll make sure that they know how wonderful, how intelligent and how loving their mother was."  With a nod he turned and left the podium, taking his seat back next to Carol.  

Jon reaches over tagging him on the leg, "Thanks man."  Richie looked at his best friend and smiled.

The next to talk was Stephanie.  With several tissues in her hand she takes her place at the small microphone stand, "Hi."  She smiles at the crowd, trying to fight back the tears that she was crying, "For those of you that don't know who I am, I'm Stephanie Bongiovi.  Beth's step daughter."  She cracks another smile, trying to act all grown up, "Beth was more than a step mother to me.  She was my best friend, my confidant and my sister."  A deep cleansing breath, "When I got the call from my dad that Beth had died, I died.  I could not believe that she was gone."  She looks at her dad and can't tell what the look on his face says.  But when he sees her looking at him, he winks, "My dad got me a plane so I could go out west to be with him.  When I did, I learned a lot about my dad and about the woman that he loved more than life.  I was able to see my dad crumbled down to a shell of a man and for me, that was monumental.  For me it was the first time that I've seen my dad as something other than Superman.  My dad loved Beth like we all see in movies.  He loved her whole heartedly and since she's been gone, I've seen him go through the five stages of grief several hundred times.  I hurt, I grieve for her but I think I grieve for my brothers and my sister more.  They will never get to know her like I did.  They will never get to do the things that I did with her and we did some crazy stuff."  Slowly she wipes the heartbreak off of her face, continuing, "Beth was a mentor for me, someone that I looked up too.  She was a strong woman with attitude and she made a name for herself.  I hope that I can honor her memory and be just like her.  I'll miss her more than I could ever tell you and I'll miss things that there aren't words for.  She got me.  She understood me.  She even saved me when I messed up really bad and knew my dad was going to be upset.  Beth worried about all of us, all of the time.  She tried very hard to make our childhood better than hers ever was.  She wanted us to be nothing but happy."  Her gaze fixes upon her little sister, whom is being fidgety on grandpa's lap, "Beth wanted her kids, and us to have nothing but love and understanding in our lives.  I won't pretend to understand why she did what she did and I can't pretend that I'm not upset with her, because I am. I'm pissed at her, but I know that she wouldn't want me to stay angry.  She always said that anger was a wasted emotion and that it took up too much brain space.  And she's right."  Wiping away more tears she takes a deep breath again, "I know that life will go on without her and that we, as her family have to keep her memory alive and we will.  Uncle Richie said it best when he said that when the kids get older and have questions we'll make sure that they know how much they were loved."  She starts to sob, "We know how much we are loved."

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Beth Ann Adams - Bongiovi and baby girl Bongiovi were laid to rest on June 27th at 7:30 pm.  She is survived by her husband, Jon Bon Jovi.  Step daughter Stephanie Bongiovi, step sons Jesse Bongiovi, Jacob Bongiovi and Romeo Bongiovi, as well as her biological children Brianna Bongiovi and Jon Spencer Bongiovi.