Dearest Family,
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SUSANNA TODAY -
OCTOBER 24TH. Susanna is 26 years old and a beautiful mother with two
beautiful children - I hope you have a WONDERFUL day!!! I am SO
grateful for pictures that remind me of Susanna and the GREAT happiness
she has brought into my life - I'm SO glad I was able to live close
enough to the Woolleys to share in many of Susanna's high school
activities. She has surely accomplished all her goals and will continue
to do just that!!!
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ROY & PATRICE
TOMORROW - OCT. 25TH. They are "30 something" with three beautiful
children and I hope you have a WONDERFUL day tomorrow too!!! I am SO
grateful for pictures that help me remember Roy when he was younger and
Patrice when she visited us in Little Rock before they married. I
appreciate SO VERY MUCH all the pictures they have shared with me as
they have lived SO MANY different places. They are also achieving their
goals!!!
Emily - thank you for your messages this
week. She has a school assignment to do a research paper on one of her
ancestors and she wants to do it on my sister Lela - I can't tell you
how happy that makes me!!! I am ALWAYS happy when my children are
interested in my family even though they didn't know them personally. I
had a VERY interesting childhood and since moving back to Utah I have
learned that people in Brigham City were affected greatly by the deaths
of Lela & Bob. Margaret, my neighbor now, told me recently that she
didn't know what Lela died of until I moved here and Ellen Mae tells me
about the experiences she had in my family home during that time.
Margaret and I were with friends not long ago and she told them the
entire city of Brigham City was in mourning for my family. I guess
that's the thing I remember most - the kindness of 4,000 people. Emily
wants anecdotes of those times so I will work on that really soon.
Jessie - thank you for your visit last
Tuesday. I was thrilled when she called and asked if she could come
spend the afternoon with me. Her visit was such a bright spot in my
life that day - I was in a TREMENDOUS mess getting a new furnace
installed so we made fudge - Ha!!! She is SO beautiful - her hair is a
different color every time I see her - Ha!!! She has it "highlighted"
now and I LOVE it!!! There were many men in my home that day with the
furnace activity and it was VERY obvious they wanted to spend time where
they could see Jessie - I don't think they even knew I lived here -
Ha!!! She has such alot going on in her life and is happy living in
Salt Lake and doing her "writing work" - she has also accepted a
contract to teach freshman English at the Salt Lake Community College
starting in January. We went to see Jeannie, Barji, Gracie and Preston
while she was here. That little Gracie is such a beauty - still dark
with alot of dark hair AND Preston is such an unusually sweet little
boy. Barji & Boyd expect to move into their home in a week or so and
they are VERY excited.
Ricky - thank you for your e-mail message.
I was SO surprised to find your letter on my computer and I LOVED it.
I'm SO glad you are happy in DRAPER and that you enjoy your work and
your friends - it's great that you can go on little trips with them to
California. I enjoyed hearing about your time with the Woolley family
having dinner with them on Sunday - Annie is such an GOOD cook and I
know that's a GREAT treat.
Claire - thank you for those darling
pictures of Katie, Abby and their other friend. They were dressed up in
their Halloween costumes ready to go to the Davis High School dance and
it makes me happy to know young people are still dressing up like that
and having fun on Halloween. That has always been one of my favorite
holidays and when I lived in Orem my young women neighbors always came
to my home for "tricking & treating" and I took pictures of them - now
they are in college or married!!! I don't have many "tricker or
treaters" where I live now - in fact, I may not buy many treats because
I always eat what's left - Ha!!!
John - thank you for your phone calls. He
is a REAL "workaholic" - he called about 9 o'clock and he was still at
his office. He is doing fine and we talked about "Michael Moore" and
his talk at UVSC. One of our former neighbors has been in the news this
past month - he was SO against them bringing such a controversial person
to the campus right in back of him and he offered them $25,000 to cancel
his speech. That didn't happen. There has been ALOT of news on
television and it was fun to watch it and remember how Lynn and I used
to walk around that campus almost every night.
They have an "empty nesters" program in my
ward and I went to it last Monday night - IT WAS REALLY AN EXCELLENT
PROGRAM. The speaker is in charge of the international video programs
for the church and he asked us to list 20 of the most prominent
languages in the church now - English, Spanish & Portugese were at the
top and I had never even heard of most of the others. The Phillipines
has many languages and German & Italian were at the bottom which
surprised me. He talked alot about the "Mam" language in Guatemala and
I know Bob, Roy & John are familiar with that one - I wasn't. One of
the men at the meeting was Mission President in Guatemala and when I
told him about all of you going there in November he just kept saying
over & over again WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL. He came home in
1987. He explained how the videos are so important because so many
people don't read and many of the L.D.S. scriptures have not been
translated in certain languages. I thought about Russell and the great
work he is doing with the Malagasy language.
There are about six people in the condos who
celebrate birthdays in October so we all went to dinner at the Red
Lobster on Tuesday night and that was REALLY fun. Margaret just turned
75 and she looks 50!!! She was a good friend of Dee & Don and it makes
me sad when I think that Dee is gone and Don is in very poor health.
I drove to Orem on Friday to have lunch with
my former neighbors and I LOVED that!!! The hostess for October called
and invited me several months ago and I have looked forward to it. It
was interesting to hear them talk about the people who bought John's
home. They seem to think there is a relationship between them and Ken
Garff and maybe he is financing all the work being done in the back
yard. I guess they are completely changing things in the home too.
Vonnie was there - she lived just East from our home and she is still
the same. She loves to have everyone do things for her - meals on
wheels, church groups doing her yard work, etc., etc. She said she is
going to move into a Condo when it is finished in 2006 - she looks
wonderful. Mae Hacking was there and she also looks wonderful - I was
kinda' surprised. She said their family is just leaving everything up
to the Lord. Mark Hacking will appear in court this week and the rumor
is that he will plead not guilty and that is SO sad!!! Thelma Soures
who is Lori Hacking's mother has said she would be "outraged" if that
happens.
I went to our ward "Luau" last night and I
don't believe I have ever seen so much preparation in a party in our
church here. They had planned for it to be outside but the weather
turned cold and rainy so it was in the Stake Center and it was
beautifully decorated. The food was delicious - they had roasted pigs &
turkeys, side dishes and MANY Marie Callenders' pies. Some Hawaiian
people presented the program and it was good.
I have told some of you that I was going on
a West Carribean Cruise with Margaret & the Guthries. WELL - a day
after I made all those arrangements they called and told me they had two
vacancies for the China Tour. What would you have done? I had a real
decision to make - let Margaret down or let Helen Jane down. The China
tour has been "in the making" for about 2 months and Helen Jane really
wanted to go and so did I so that's what I will do. I have lost ALOT of
money cancelling my airline flight and the cruise but I didn't know what
else to do. Margaret understands but she will lose alot of money too.
She could take another friend and that would help ALOT but at this point
she doesn't want to - I'm hoping that will change. The China Tour is 12
days and the itinerary sound fabulous and we will go with Ellen Mae &
Mel Manning and Gene & Wayne Rich and that will be special. We all met
on Friday for about three hours finalizing our plans and getting them
all ready including our passports so they could be mailed on Saturday
morning Federal Express. THEN I remembered that I had forgotten to sign
the registration paper. SO I got in my car at 8 o'clock and drove to
Willard to Helen Jane's home - IT WAS SO DARK - and signed that - I had
also forgotten to send the check. I am SO used to having other people
think and plan for me that I am an absolute idiot - I hope I don't get
lost in China - Ha!!!
I stopped at John's home on my way home from
Orem on Friday and threw balls to Tar - he is such a special dog and I
just love John's home!!!
THAT'S ALL THE NEWS I THINK. I LOVE EACH
ONE OF YOU SO VERY, VERY MUCH. PLEASE BE SO VERY, VERY CAREFUL IN
EVERYTHING YOU DO. Grandma B XXXXXOOOOO