Dearest Family,
Today is an absolutely gorgeous Fall day in Utah
- MY KIND OF WEATHER - Ha!!! The man from whom I bought this condo is in
town this week so a group of his former neighbors went to the Oakridge
Country Club for lunch after church today. Jack Browning is his name and he
is such a nice man and looks really good. I didn't go for lunch because my
home teachers were coming but I went later and visited for awhile. I took
him an apple from the tree they planted when they lived here - I can't
believe all the apples I have but they all have worm holes in them. I will
have to spray next Spring!!!
This week is UEA - Utah Education Association -
so all the school children are out of school and the teachers are supposed
to attend "teacher development" meetings in the Salt Palace in Salt Lake.
There is a big article in the paper today saying they may discontinue this
because too many teachers think it is a good time to take a vacation. I
really don't blame them.
Patrice - thank you for your messages. I'm SO
glad Emily likes her flute and is involved in Central's orchestra - I wish I
could go to one of her concerts. It's GREAT that she is involved in the
Arkansas Youth Symphony Orchestra too. Many of my friends are busy going to
soccer games of their grandchildren and I hope Timothy is having good
weather for his games - your weather is probably every bit as nice as mine
is. My neighbor's family is in Park City this weekend attending some water
polo competitions of college swimming teams. It's WONDERFUL that Jesse
likes swimming and hopefully he will continue that like Roy's friend Tripp
Strauss did.
I'm glad you and Roy like your birthday present
even though it was a month early - I sent them a Halloween Haunted House
that makes a spooky noise. I knew that Roy would NEVER buy anything that
made a noise like that but I wanted the children to have it - Ha!!!
I don't know where my Utah family is but
wherever you are I hope you are having a good time. I know the Weinerts
planned to go to Nauvoo with their entire family and I know the Woolleys
planned to go to San Diego with their entire family - I hope they were able
to carry out their plans and I hope especially that the Woolleys get to
spend some time with Jessie. I don't know what the Bob Mellors planned to
do but I'm thinking they are out of town too since I haven't heard from
them. I have talked to John and he didn't have any special plans but he is
super busy with work - I hope he does something special with Bren since he
will be out of school.
John - the missionary reunion pictures turned
out good - THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I wish you had taken more of them instead
of Polly because the ones she took are out of focus. I had a funny
experience when I scanned them to send them to some of the missionaries who
had given me their e-mail addresses. Your friend Barry Hansen wrote his
address down but I couldn't read it so I sent them to one I already had in
my address book for a Barry Tempe etc.,etc. Well - it came back to me along
with a letter saying he was happy we had a good reunion but he wasn't one of
our missionaries. As it turned out the Barry I sent it to is a friend of
Carol Ann Braithwaite Willardsen and somehow in our correspondence I put his
address into my address book thinking it was Barry Hansen. This Barry
Anderson is from Manti and made the connection because he knew some Mellors
there - small world!!!
I enjoyed being in Don and Cheryls' lovely home
for a couple days but I don't believe I will ever do that again without some
"manpower" help. Don is SO much weaker than he was when I cared for him
last and I did a terrible job. I liken it to taking care of a 175 lb. baby
and I honestly don't know how Cheryl does it alone. The morning I was there
to get him out of bed I got him to the edge of it but couldn't lift him and
he just slid down on the floor. I should have had his walker next to the
bed for him to hang onto but I didn't. I absolutely tried everything
possible and could not get him up - I called Pam, his daughter, but she
wasn't home. He wanted me to call Chad, his son, but he was there the night
before and told me he was going out of town that next day - besides he
doesn't live or work close by where Don lives. In desperation Don let me go
to one of his neighbors for help - it took a man and his wife and me almost
30 minutes to get him up. It was so embarrassing for Don and I felt SO bad
but there wasn't anything else I could do. He just can't walk at all and he
told me he is losing strength in his arms too - I wish he had a wheelchair.
He says he feels quite good and he has a WONDERFUL appetite. They have 4
BIG sons who are willing to help and they go to visit him often but they
have their own families to take care of. Pam is also willing to help but
she is tiny - she has lost 35 pounds since I saw her last and she has also
had a "nose job" and she is beautiful!!! Her autistic son is now 15 years
old and she told me they are considering a group home for him - that will be
hard for them but for the best
I can't believe the "sniper" can you??? I
decided to not watch as much television as I have been watching because of
all the bad news so last night I turned on the radio to listen to the BYU -
Air Force football game. When the score was 35 to 3 in favor of Air Force I
turned it off and went to sleep. I felt SO bad when I heard on the news
about some cub scouts finding the body of a young woman in a cement ditch
next to a church building near Brigham City - at first my thought was that
it may be Elizabeth Smart but it wasn't. It is the body of a young woman
from Ogden and she had been shot in the head. Jeannie tells me that all the
bad news seems worse to me because of my age - I can't do anything about
that. I just hope that each one of you will be extra careful in your
everyday activities and stay safe.
Russell - I'm excited to hear more about your
English teaching plans. English seems SO easy to all of us compared to many
of the foreign languages but foreigners have such a difficult time
pronouncing so many of our sounds. Your letters are WONDERFUL and I know
you are having a GREAT mission and making lifelong friends.
That's all the news. I LOVE EACH ONE OF YOU
SO VERY, VERY MUCH. PLEASE BE SO VERY, VERY CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO.
Grandma B XXXXXXXXOOOOOOO