How Karl-Anthony Towns plans to honor memory of his mother on Mother’s Day

After navigating the past year filled with grief over their loss and inspiration over their strength, Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns and his father will soon experience another moment that will leave them feeling wistful.

Karl Towns Sr. traveled to Florida for reasons beyond watching his son play in the Timberwolves’ games this weekend in Miami (Friday) and Orlando (Sunday). He will also spend time with his son to celebrate Mother’s Day and honor his wife, Jacqueline Cruz-Towns, who died on April 13, 2020 because of complications involving the coronavirus.

“It’ll be emotional. But it’ll be rewarding because she’ll be happy to know we’re still doing the stuff that she would want us to do,” Towns Sr. told USA TODAY Sports. “We haven’t stopped living. She would want us to keep moving forward and celebrate our love for her and our love for ourselves and the family. We’re going to continue to do the exact same thing we’ve been doing.”

Towns Sr. stayed at his New Jersey home on Mother’s Day last year because of stay-at-home restrictions during the initial stages of the pandemic. He also had tested positive for COVID-19 last year. So in what will mark the first time Towns Sr. and his son will celebrate Mother’s Day together without Jacqueline, they plan to continue various traditions to commemorate her memory.

They will toast to Jacqueline's memory over dinner and in a prayer. Towns Sr. then plans to watch Sunday’s game in Miami, marking the fifth Timberwolves game he will have attended this season.

"It’s going be different for me," Towns said. "But there’s a lot of memories to cherish on Sunday and I’m glad I got the basketball so I can have something that can take my mind off of it. I’m very fortunate that my father is with me. It’s something that I think that both of us understand the pain."

Towns Sr. and his son also plan to eventually exchange gifts with Towns’ sister, Lachelle Porter, who will spend the holiday with her mom’s family in Piscataway, NJ.

“It’s going to be sad because she’s not around,” Porter said. “She had the music playing, cooking, laughing and inviting everyone and hosting everything. But because of losing her, I will cherish having everyone that I do have.”

Celebrating Mother’s Day in typical fashion

Though they hope to normalize Mother’s Day this year, Towns’ family celebrated the holiday typically during better circumstances.

Towns Sr. said he and his two children usually cooked breakfast for Jacqueline, took her out to dinner and treated her with flowers and other gifts. The holiday never conflicted with the Timberwolves' schedule since Towns has appeared in the playoffs only once out of five seasons, and the Timberwolves failed to advance past the first round three years ago.

"That was the love of my life. That was my soul," Towns said of his mom. "I’ve been, unfortunately, used to being home by this time of year and celebrating Mother’s Day with her. It always brought a smile to my face."

Those smiles often widened when Jacqueline watched her son play in a basketball game.

While juggling a full-time job as a billing technician at Rutgers University, Jacqueline attended all of Towns’ games at St. Joseph High School in Metuchen, NJ (2011-2014), with the Dominican Republic national team (2012 Olympic qualifiers), his lone year at the University of Kentucky (2014-15) and his first five seasons in Minnesota (2015-2020). Towns Sr., who played college basketball at Monmouth University before working in education management at Job Corps, attended those games, too.

“We never sat together at any game ever. I was the game watcher. She was the game watcher, opinion sharer and screamer,” Towns Sr. said, laughing. “She was everything. That was her baby. If you fouled him, she’d let you know. If you hurt him, she’d let you know.”

No wonder Towns Sr. described Jacqueline as “the leader of this family.” Towns Sr. and his son often credited Jacqueline for instilling various life-long values, including standing up for just causes, helping others and speaking one’s mind without any fear of backlash.

“He’s his mother,” Towns Sr. said of his son. “She’s the strongest willed person she’s ever been. She’s always stood for right. Karl was following in her footsteps. They are identical.”

Therefore, Towns has tried to emulate her mother’s spirit.

Helping others through their pain

Towns shared publicly about his mother’s positive COVID-19 diagnosis and subsequent death partly for two reasons. He hoped to help others that have also lost loved ones during the pandemic and he wanted to push others to take the safety protocols seriously.

"I didn’t want people to feel lonely and upset as I was," Towns said earlier this season. "I made that video to protect others and keep others well-informed, even though I knew it would take the emotions out of me."

Towns also credited his mother for him joining former NBA player Stephen Jackson to protest systemic racism and police brutality shortly after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by kneeling on him for more than nine minutes.

"It was the strength of my mother to get the strength to go out of the house after being upset," Towns said earlier this season. "The first time being outside was difficult emotionally and mentally. But I knew I had to go. I knew I had to make my voice heard at a time it wasn’t convenient. Doing the right thing is usually the hardest thing to do in the world today."

In Towns’ case, he juggled keeping that mindset while navigating other hardships.

Towns has lost six other family members because of complications involving COVID-19. He also revealed that he had been struck by a drunk driver in Los Angeles before this season. And he announced in January that he had also tested positive for COVID-19, though he has since recovered and has received the vaccine.

‘He’s living vicariously through his mom’

On the basketball front, the Timberwolves (20-47) have the Western Conference’s second-worst record amid various overlapping injuries. Nonetheless, Towns has averaged 24.8 points on 48.7% shooting along with 10.7 rebounds and 4.6 assists, which nearly mirrors his career averages.

“How many people can still be doing and putting up the numbers he does after going through what he has been going through? A lot of people couldn’t do it,” Towns Sr. said. “His numbers are up there with some of the best players in the league. A lot of people would’ve had to take the year off to recover. But he said, ‘No this is his job.’”

Towns Sr. imagined Jacqueline would have said the same thing.

“He’s living vicariously through his mom,” Towns Sr. said. “He’s two people now -- he’s himself and his mom as one. Together, they are powerful. Trust me when I tell you that. They are powerful. She was the strongest woman I know.”

Taking over the mother’s tradition

If only Towns Sr. could see his son performing with Jacqueline by his side.

After mostly staying at his home the past year both to cope with Jacqueline’s passing and to recover from the coronavirus, Towns Sr. made the relatively short drive for Minnesota’s game in Brooklyn on March 29. While wearing his son’s No. 32 jersey, Towns Sr. stepped into an unfamiliar role.

Typically, Jacqueline and Towns had what his father called a “tradition” before the game while he kept a low profile. If she had a close enough seat, Jacqueline yelled Towns’ name before he came over and hugged her. If her seat was far away, Towns would look for Jacqueline in the crowd before waving to her. This time, it was Towns Sr. that greeted his son before the game.

“It was very, very emotional for me,” Towns Sr. said. “I was almost in tears.”

So was his son.

“It affected me because my mom always did that,” Towns told reporters afterwards. “My dad was never the one to make his presence known. My mom was the one to go to the stanchion or wave to me, say hi to me or hug her.”

More emotions swept the Towns family on April 11 when the Timberwolves honored Jacqueline before hosting the Bulls. Then, the team kept an open seat reserved for Jacqueline with a jersey and flowers.

“I get teary eyed now thinking about it,” Towns Sr. said. “I was so overtaken. I couldn’t even go up there to the chair because it was too much for me. When the game started and they flashed the light on her seat with the flowers, I was out there just teary eyed. You’re with somebody for 30 years and you’re having a memorial for them? People don’t understand how tough that is inside.”

Towns Sr. then fought back tears.

“I hear that ‘Every day gets better.’ It never gets better,” he said. “Over time? Maybe. But even over time, there’s so much stuff that we did in 30 years that the littlest thing reminds me of her.”

Yet, Towns Sr. said his eyes dried up when he shared a moment with both his son and Bulls All-Star guard Zach LaVine after the game. A similar exchange happened after the Golden State Warriors-Timberwolves game last week when Stephen Curry and Draymond Green offered condolences. Those incidents reminded Towns Sr. of the support he and his son received from the NBA community both publicly and privately following Jacqueline’s diagnosis and her passing less than a month later.

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Towns Sr. also credited various close family members and friends for “making us feel warm” since Jacqueline’s hospitalization and subsequent passing. Towns Sr. singled out his son’s girlfriend (Jordyn Woods) and her mother (Elizabeth Woods) for their companionship. Towns thanked his daughter (Lachelle Porter) both for visiting his son in Minnesota for several months and helping both him and his son with cooking and cleaning. And Towns also expressed gratitude for Jacqueline’s mother (Mary) and sisters (Annie, Francine, Nina, Kari and Michelle) as well as his son’s agent (Jessica Holtz) for their various support.

“That was a very hard thing to do. I just didn’t realize how much my mom was putting into the family,” Porter said. “My mother was our consultant. My mother was our guide in life. We’re all trying to fulfill that void. But at the end of the day, losing someone that strong of a character in your life is hard.”

The Towns family will receive another reminder of that reality on Mother’s Day.

“You’ll never replace Jacqueline Towns, but you can have people that can step in her shoes to give us inspiration as we get closer to this Mother’s Day,” Towns Sr. said. “They’re all set to be there for us.”

Therefore, Towns Sr. and his son plan to pay respect to Jacqueline on Mother’s Day as best as they can. “We’ll treat the day as if she were standing right there next to us,” said Towns Sr., even as he awaits feeling both emotional and inspired that she will be looking from up above.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Karl-Anthony Towns will honor mother who died of COVID last year