Jill Marie Thompson

Jill Marie Thompson, 53, of Littleton, CO passed away on Monday, November 14th. Jill was born on April 22, 1969 to Joseph and Barbara Thompson (nee Gibbs) at Swedish Hospital in Englewood, CO. She graduated from Arapahoe High School in 1987 and then went on to study business at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO.  

Post college, she worked for a travel agency doing familiarization trips to Mexico, which ignited Jill’s adventurous spirit and love for travel.  During this time, she traveled all around Mexico visiting hotels, historical sites like Tulum, excursions, and the occasional bungee jump or cliff diving.  There may have been some swim up bars involved too.  On one of her favorite familiarization trips she took her father, Joseph, to Cozumel.  They spent their time riding a moped around the island, stopping at all of the beaches, and finding hidden gems of authentic Mexican restaurants.

After the travel agency, she started her career as a project manager/consultant and worked for Clarify,  Open Scan, and Industrial Wisdom companies.  Jill managed teams that developed customer relationship management (CRM) software for various companies around the United States.  During her career she got the nickname “Little Chief”, because she was a caring and devoted manager for her teams through many successful software designs and releases.  And she was only 5’1”.

In February 1999, her daughter Taylor was born, and thus began Jill’s years of being a wonderful, nurturing, and compassionate mother.  Jill’s life was filled with love and joy at raising her daughter where days were filled with sports practices/games, school functions, family travel, or spending time at home watching Spongebob Squarepants or dancing in Taylor’s bedroom to the Dixie Chicks.  Taylor affectionately called Jill “Amma”, which means mother.  Even Taylor’s friends called Jill “Amma”, because she always treated them like one of her own.  Throughout the years, Jill relished “date days” with Taylor where they spent one-on-one time going out to eat, to the mall, or just hanging out at home cuddled up together and watching a movie.  She also loved doing arts and crafts with Taylor.  This usually consisted of drawing, coloring, making funny or love-filled cards, resin jewelry making, or teaching Taylor the art of photography.  No matter what was going on in life, Jill always made time for Taylor, for kisses, hugs, ”I love you”s, encouragement for trying new things, a shoulder to cry on, an ear to listen, or a reminder on doing the right thing.  Jill was Taylor’s biggest fan and strived to be a role model in every facet of life for Taylor to grow up to be as happy, loving, and compassionate as she was.

In December 2003, she met her life partner, Kellie, and they spent the next 19 years together as a dream team.  Their first date consisted of watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail and they knew it was a match that was meant to be.  Jill was a fairly picky eater, but Kellie’s cooking wooed her to the point of finishing off whole pots of meatball soup by herself (not in one sitting of course!).  Jill’s love of travel was passed on to Kellie and they took many trips to Las Vegas, Mexico, and resorts in the Rocky Mountains.  Jill had always professed a love of whale sharks; and on one of those trips to Holbox, Mexico, they swam with the whale sharks in what would be one of the best days of Jill’s life.  In 2005 Jill fell ill, which began a whirlwind of doctor visits, tests, ER visits, and hospital stays. In 2006, Jill was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Despite the health challenges throughout the years, Jill and Kellie’s days were always filled with the wonderful task of raising Taylor, love, laughter, fun, respect, encouragement, compassion, and more laughter. 

Jill’s passions in life were Kellie, Taylor, any place with a beach, any place with a craps table, any place in the Rocky Mountains (especially Vail), soft blankets, kindness, integrity, laughing, camping, concerts, woodworking, arts and crafts, nature photography, making photo books of her photography, recording videos of the sky, coloring, whale sharks, white K-Swiss sneakers, putting her mobility scooter on rabbit (fast mode!), 4:15 chicken, movies/documentaries/discussions about aliens and UFOs or any spiritual topics, pina coladas, tiny pants, spending time with family and friends, Mexican food,  extremely well done steak, brussel sprouts and artichokes, talking in her sleep, South Park, movies: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Yellowbeard, Caddyshack, The Heat, Dodgeball, Old School, Shawshank Redemption, Lord of the Rings series, Harry Potter series, and (unfortunately) the Twilight series.

Jill was preceded in death by her mother, Barbara. She is survived by her father Joseph, brother Michael (Sarah), brother Scott, her life partner Kellie, daughter Taylor, her beloved cousin Deana, her aunts Nancy and Jenny, niece Jessica, nephew Joshua, and many close friends of 30+ years.

To say that her family and friends will miss her greatly is an understatement, but we are at peace with knowing that she is with her mother again.  To be loved by her was truly a wonderful blessing.  She will always be our Amma or “Little Chief”.

Jill's church service is scheduled at St. Tim's Episcopalian church for Monday, Nov 21st at 10am with a reception following.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (National Multiple Sclerosis Society) www.nationalmssociety.com in Jill's name and memory.

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