All of us that know Jon, know that Jon loved his seafood.  Jon had a special recipe and at the restaurant table, or anywhere for that matter, he would request a short list of ingredients and a bowl to mix up a special seafood sauce.  It was similar to red seafood sauce, but with a little more heat and flavor.

On New Year’s Eve a couple of years ago, Jon, Angela, Dirk Cook, Louanna Reese, my husband Steven, and myself, started the evening at our house and then went to Monument Inn for dinner.  This was one of Jon’s favorite restaurants.  And we had the best waitress that evening.  She was super sweet and had the most wonderful personality.

After we placed our orders and the waitress was about to leave the table, Jon stopped her and said, “Wait just a minute, I need a few more things”.  He started naming out the ingredients he needed, slowly and methodically, so she would have plenty of time to write each one down and not miss anything.  He reminded her to be sure and not forget his gumbo bowl to mix up his recipe.

As he finished his list of ingredients, the waitress paused for a very brief moment and had a little smirk on her face, and then said …..

“I GOT YA PRINCESS”.

As she said that, the entire table stopped and our jaws dropped, it was so quiet.  We all turned and looked at Jon.

Yes folks, that was the very moment, Jon Stone was COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY SPEECHLESS!

There was no come back, no quick-witted remark … nothing … nada … he was completely speechless, with his mouth wide open, too.

The entire table erupted with the loudest round of laughter you have ever heard.

A PRINCESS WAS BORN!

Since that night we’ve had many, many evenings out where Princes Sauce was talked and laughed about.  We always joked around and said Jon should start a seafood sauce business and take it nation wide.

Last month, at Jon’s birthday celebration dinner, we were at Monument Inn again.  And the story of Princess and Princess Sauce was told again.  This night we made the story grow.  In addition to the joke of starting his Princess Sauce seafood sauce business, we spent more than an hour laughing and joking about the extra marketing items he could add to the line up to help brand and expand the business.  We joked about things like Princess Sauce bibs and Princess Sauce wipes (it’s a very hot sauce).

There was so much laughter and we were so loud, laughing so hard we were crying – Just the way Jon loved it.