For Georgia Tech All-American track star Janeen Jones McReynolds, motherhood involved the same type of discipline she put into running and her work as a mechanical engineer. Her husband, Uwezu McReynolds, recalls her death in a car accident in 2008. Their son Sid is now 7.
Janeen was a freshman on the Tech track team, and I was a junior when we met. She did the 400 meters, and I did the 110 hurdles.
The 400 is what many people will tell you is the toughest race in track and field. It’s the longest sprint. She had to be really disciplined and mentally strong to overcome that kind of pain on a daily basis.
Her senior year, Janeen was ranked No. 1 in the nation in outdoor track and finished second in the national championships. She beat Marion Jones in a race that was not Janeen’s main event — it was the 200 meters.
Janeen was kind and friendly. Most women on the team, and some men, asked Janeen for advice. We dated for five years before marrying in 1998. By then she had graduated with honors twice, getting her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Tech.
Our son was born in 2005, and as a mother, Janeen was very organized, just as she had been in school. She always had the right things in the bag when she took him out. She always allowed enough time to wash his bottles. She was methodical and somewhat of a perfectionist. With the discipline from track, she somehow could do well in motherhood, her career and our marriage.
She did let go of having everything clean around the house. She used to go into a cleaning frenzy before someone came over. When Sid was born, a lot of that went out the window.
Janeen had helped coach at Tech after graduation, while working at a research firm. After nine years, she left that firm for a job at GE. The first day on that job, the accident happened. Sid was only 2 1/2.
I don’t know if his personality is more genetic, but he is so calm. He never cried much. He definitely helped motivate me to get going after her death. At some point you think, why keep going? I couldn’t leave this world thinking about him existing without me.
Since then, I’ve remarried, and my wife, Alison, and I have a baby, William. Sid is in second grade in Cobb County, where we live, and is showing a lot of talent in running. He started track last year, and he lasts the longest on the sprint. He makes excellent grades. He’s the nicest kid around, and he gets a lot of that from his mom.
