February 2, 1999 Farmington, Utah

ROY - THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR LETTER!!! I am SO glad you were not hurt in any way in the tornado. It is good to read yours and Patrice's descriptions of the damage - my heart aches for those involved. I want SO much for you to come visit all of us - the weekend of Feb. 26th through March 1st is the only thing I have on my calendar for the entire year.

Last week was one to remember but never repeat - Ha!!! I think you can tell what a person is really like when you go through things like I did last week with my great family. I didn't hear one cross word - many laughs but no one was disagreeable - it was SO fun for me to listen to the women in our family try to decide where to put the furniture - I wish I could have had a tape recording of it.

Last Monday, January 25th, I went to John and Juliannas' home and then we all went to Spanish Fork to meet with the title people so we could close on their home. John wanted to do it in Spanish Fork with a friend of his and it was such a pleasant experience. John and Julianna both had to take the day off - I have never seen more paper work - I believe they signed at least one hundred papers. THEY PAID FULL PRICE FOR THE HOME!!! They didn't tell us beforehand that we would need Daddy's death certificate so of course we didn't have it. The home was in the Jesse L. Mellor Family Trust so it had to be sold that way and then the condo had to be bought that way. We hurried back to Orem to look for the certificate but we couldn't find it. I went to the safety deposit box in Lehi thinking it would be there but it wasn't.

Tuesday morning I awakened to a huge snow storm and they always give such detailed news about the traffic to Salt Lake and they kept saying "don't travel today unless you absolutely have to". I decided I absolutely had to so I left Layton about 9:30 and got to Orem about 11:30. I knew I had to find the certificate if we were going to be able to close on the condo the next day. I decided to look in the very place that I had looked the day before because I was so sure that it would be there AND it was. I guess I had just hurried too fast on Monday. John was scheduled to go to California and had to leave about a half an hour after I got to Orem so he just flew to get things settled - he called the title company and told them to send a carrier to his office and he would have the certificate there for them. I stayed for a little while and did a little more packing of the breakable things and then hurried back to Layton - I WAS SO HAPPY TO GET HOME - the visibility was very bad from the point of the mountain into Orem and then through Davis county.

Wednesday - Rick, Bob and I met Bette and Jack Browning in Bountiful to close on the condo. It was a very pleasant meeting and everything went so well. Rick had done a lot of work with a lady in that office and she was already to help us. Bette and Jack said they would be out of their condo the next afternoon by 2 o'clock. I had told them I would be happy to stay in the apartment for another month so they wouldn't have to put their things in storage but they are very nice people and they didn't want me to do that. I have heard since they left that they got stuck in an ice storm on the way to Houston and were delayed several days.

Thursday - I was ready to move by 2 o'clock but I decided to call Jeannie and ask her to go by the condo to see if they had gone. She called me back and said the moving van was still carrying furniture out so I decided to just wait until it got dark - I was sure they would be finished by then. I had my car just filled to the brim with things and came by about 6:15 - Jack was just taking things out to the garbage and he tried to get me to come in but I said I would go to Jean and Ricks' condo and stay for an hour and then I would come back. He said they had about fifteen minutes more vacuuming to do. I came back about 7:30 and what a thrill to see the condition it was in. They had things so clean and shiny I didn't even want to walk on the carpet.

Friday - I moved all the boxes that I had stored in the Weinert's condo and tried to get all the things from the apartment here. Bob had made arrangements for some young men to come get the gas pipes to where they could fit to convert the fireplace from woodburning to gas. They worked for several hours on the gas line and then Bob did the electrical work.

Saturday - I met Bob at the condo about 6:45 a.m. The night before as we were leaving, the electric garage door came unhooked so he came over early to fix that. He also had to go check on patients at the hospital even earlier. We were both quite tired and apprehensive as we drove to Orem and we didn't have much to say to each other. It was WONDERFUL to drive into John and Juliannas' home - they were already for us with all kinds of delicious bagels and cream cheeses and drinks. There are not adequate words to describe what went on that day. I know there were at least three dozen bagels and then later my sweet neighbors, Carol and Adrian Fredericks who own "5 Buck Pizza" brought three HUGE pizzas. They all disappeared in nothing flat - what a treat!!!

Rick, Michael and Jeannie cleaned out the apartment. They had to move the love seats, the end tables and lamps, the entertainment cabinet with the television, the micro wave, the bed, the chest of drawers, a desk and the computer. AND Michael had had surgery the day before to cut out an ingrown toenail. The bad thing was that they had just moved all that stuff into the apartment two months earlier.

Rick and Jeannie had this moving company move their things and they were very pleased with them so we decided to hire them too. About 8:30 a.m., this HUGE van came driving up to the house and on the side it said in bold letters, "LOW COST MOVING". The man who owns the company is a school teacher and he hires some of his students to work for him. There was the man, Dale Child, and one of his students and then Bob, John and Russell. I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYONE WORK ANY HARDER THAN THEY DID. Ann, Russell and Julianna worked right along with the men but the men did the heavy lifting and Russell was truly a man. I had forgotten how efficient Ann can be when there is a job to be done. It took her about fifteen minutes to load all my paper back books into a box to take to D. I. They carried every bit of my furniture out of the house and soon Dale could see that his truck couldn't carry all of it so they called Rick to get another van. I truly had planned for John and Julianna to keep some of the furniture but they didn't want one thing. I have worried for the last few days about them - not having any place to put their clothes, etc.

Dale and his "LOW COST MOVING VAN" left Orem about 2:00 p.m. and Bob and I followed soon after that. Rick and John finished up loading the rest of the things and then they came. It didn't take as along to load it "off" the van as it did to load it "on". Claire came with her arms full of the most delicious donuts. I have NEVER had any donut taste as good to me as they did that day. All of a sudden Ron appeared and he came just in the nick of time - I worried about all the lifting he did. He had to go on a special scout trip where they went to build snow caves and they stayed over night and Jimmy was with him. Anyway - they couldn't come earlier. Ron and Lynn moved all that furniture from Lehi to Orem about 12 years ago so he had done his share and more.

John and Julianna have great plans for their home. They are going to knock out the wall between the kitchen and the den and put cabinets along the wall of the dining room. They have put their plans on the computer and I love them. They didn't want any thing left in the house so they could go to work - I hope so much they get it just the way they want it.

I was SO tired that I didn't think I would go to church on Sunday morning but I was wide awake by 7 o'clock so I went. I was cold in Relief Society so as soon as the lesson was over I came home BUT I had locked myself out of the condo. I knew that Bob had made keys for everyone so I decided to go to the Weinerts and get warm (they never lock their doors) until they came home from church. I had the garage doors open and backed out of the driveway and all of a sudden I heard a "screech" and at the same time I looked out the window to see Rick hold his hands up to his head and I knew immediately what I had done. I HAD BACKED INTO RICK'S BRAND NEW LEXUS CAR. I feel so bad but it can be fixed and I have learned to never grieve over things that can be fixed. He was SO nice about it and that meant a lot to me. The funny thing is that Rick had also left church early - I'm sure there is a lesson there somewhere - Ha!!!

I honestly don't know how I will ever get even with all of you who helped me SO much but I will try. I have to ask myself if Julianna would ever consent to move into my home again if she knew what she was going to do. I have been unpacking things and I am just amazed at the thoughtful care she has given to EVERYTHING in my house. She has packed my kitchen things with such care they could have been shipped to Thailand and they would never have had even a scratch. JULIANNA - THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH. John and Julianna have put up with millions of boxes and a great big mess for the last 18 months. When President Hawkins compliments me again on being willing to leave to go on a mission with such short notice I must tell him that I could never have done it if my son and his wife had not been willing to care for my home and belongings the way they did.