Sheinelle Jones is sharing how she has dealt with the death of her husband, Uche Ojeh, and her grandmother, Josephine Vonceal Pace Brown, in the past year.
The TODAY co-host reflected on the challenging moments she and her family have faced recently during an interview on “Meet the Press” with Kristen Welker that aired Sunday, July 26. The two discussed Sheinelle’s debut novel, “Through Mom’s Eyes,” published in April, which features insights she has gained through conversations with mothers of various public figures about being a successful parent.
Sheinelle and Uche shared three children together. He died in May 2025 at the age of 45 after a battle with brain cancer. Months later, Sheinelle announced the “sudden passing” of her 96-year-old grandmother on New Year’s Eve in an Instagram post. Her tribute included a photo of Uche and Brown together, with text that said “My forever angels.”
While speaking to Welker, Sheinelle said it was “brutal” losing two of her loved ones so soon after each other.
But, she said she was glad she was able to send her grandmother an early copy of her book before she died. “I’m so happy that she got to see how much I cherish her in stories,” she said.
Sheinelle then opened up about the death of her husband, recalling attending his funeral and being moved by seeing how many people loved him.
“I remember being at his funeral service, and it was certainly a blur. I only looked back twice. You know, the widow sits in the front,” she explained to Welker, who went to the service. “I remember telling the organizers at the church that I expected around a couple hundred people… It was not just a couple hundred people.”
She continued, “I remember looking back and I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ For a life that was 45 years long — or short — to have that big of an impact. And a lot of those people, most of them, weren’t people that I had relationships with. They were his relationships.”
Sheinelle added that there was an outpouring of love at Uche’s wake, too. “The line was wrapped around the place,” she said.
She revealed that an unexpected interaction at the wake caused her to become emotional. Sheinelle said an older woman and her daughter joined the line, and the woman shared how they used to watch Uche take his children to school on the train every morning. The stranger praised Uche for being an attentive and caring father.
“That was the first time I cried,” Sheinelle said. “Because it was just, like, people are watching you when you don’t even know they’re watching, you know? And so it’s the connection that we leave on this Earth, and the connection that we make with people that matters.”
Sheinelle told Welker how she and her three children — Kayin, 16, and 14-year-old twins Clara and Uche — keep his memory alive.
“My boys look just like him. Sometimes it takes my breath away a little bit,” the TODAY co-host shared. She said her boys also mirror their dad’s mannerisms in ways they aren’t even aware of yet.
“So in some ways he’s still with me in ways that I could’ve never imagined, and it’s comforting,” she explained.
But she acknowledged that it is also challenging going through major life moments without her husband.
“My kids are graduating middle school. We’ve got a high school graduation coming not far away. It’s tough. I’m like, ‘God, are you missing it? Can you see it?’” she asks.
Welker chimed in and praised Sheinelle, sharing that Uche would’ve been proud to see everything she has accomplished in the past year. The “Meet the Press” anchor mentioned Sheinelle’s book, as well as co-hosting TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle as some of her recent achievements.
Sheinelle said TODAY viewers are seeing a new version of her, “Sheinelle 2.0” as Al Roker told her.
“Because you can’t help but to be changed by something like this. I think I’m more empathetic. I think I am more patient. I think if I’m having a conversation, I can be here now,” she explained.
She said she is also more cognizant of tomorrow not being guaranteed, so she doesn’t want to live her life with any regrets.
“I heard this quote where it said, ‘Take the people that you love who you lost, take the quality about them that you love about them the most, and try to emulate that quality,’” Sheinelle shared. “Uche was super driven and super competitive. And so, even when I wrote this book I was scared to dream that it could be on The New York Times list. But then there’s a part of me that’s like, ‘Oh, no, he would.’ I wrote it. Let’s go for it.”
In addition to Uche’s fearlessness as inspiration, she also has her grandmother’s drive. She noted that her grandmother broke barriers as the first woman of color on the school board in her hometown. She gushed that her grandmother was “Black excellence.”
“I can do that. I can embody that. Look at my life over the last year. Look at the wins. I don’t think it’s by accident,” Sheinelle said. “I do feel like I have some guardian angels up there that are talking to the good Lord on my behalf. I feel that.”
