Alice's memories of Mom

I have some pictures of our family in Canon City.  We went to the state penitentiary while we were there.  Was that after Grandma Norman died?  I am wearing the moccasins that we bought from the inmates.  John is just a toddler, so he isn't the one that cut them with scissors......must have been you, Van.  No one was sympathetic with my crying after you cut them because I had dared you to do it.  It was just a small snip in the leather, but I remember bawling forever....    I also remember visiting the Royal Gorge bridge that Dad helped build.  I think it is just outside Canon City.  I was scared to death.  Maybe that is when my fear of heights began.

I have another memory of a family trip to Yellowstone Park.  I don't remember much about the trip except driving through the park, again being scared to death, because one of you told me that King Kodiak bears would come and tip over cars and kill everyone inside!  Was I an easy  target?

I remember that I loved to go to Aunt Rosalia' home.  One summer I stayed there for a few days.  I loved eating the apricots and cherries that they grew in their orchards.  But even more than that, I loved taking a hammer, breaking open the pit of the apricot and eating the nut that was inside.  They had buckets of the apricot pits.  I also remember Aunt Rosalia's legs (which, by the way, mine resemble today).  She wore nylon stockings and would roll them down just below her knees.  Not a good look.  She also had many collapsed veins and they were so creepy that they scared me too.  What a wimp!  They made homemade root beer sometimes and I loved that!  I have looked for their home when I have been in Bountiful, but can't find it.  I have either forgotten what it looked like, or it is gone.  Aunt Rosalia and Uncle Hugh lived with us in Bountiful for a little while when he was so sick.   Do you remember that, John?

Because it is Mother's Day today, I am going to write some memories of Mom.

Can you believe she let me paint all those flowers on the wall of the basement?  She was always so willing to let me do just about anything that I wanted to do.....except sleep in, because that was a sin!  She supported me in so many things.  I'm not sure I would be such a supportive mother if my daughter wanted to go to Lake Tahoe for the summer to work in a casino or go to Paris with a friend, basically with no specifics on what we would find or do when we got there.....and the BIGGEST of all, marry a non member and then treat him just the same (or in some cases better, i.e.  "Don't you think Bob would like a steak tonight for dinner?) as any other member of the family.  I don't remember a time that I felt that she didn't trust me.

Of course her service to others is paramount in my mind.  She was so willing to serve others that she had no idea (here again, she always thought the best of me) that I didn't always appreciate it when she volunteered me to serve too.  I am grateful for that today, but feel ashamed that I didn't always  respond the way she did when she saw a need and an opportunity to serve.  Now, as a grandma, I know that taking care of several little children for many hour, or days, is HARD work.  She never made me feel that way with my children....I thought she was just having a great time!

 

When she first moved in with us here in Boise we were assigned to be visiting teaching companions.  I think I can probably count on one hand the times we went out together.......she would just do it at the first of each month by herself "because I was so busy".  Thinking back, I could have used the blessings of visiting teaching, but at the time I was so grateful that she just did it.  

I wish I had more memories of her when I was a little child.  I do remember how much she loved her family...especially her sisters.  EVERY Memorial Day we would drive to the SLC Cemetery.  We would have picked several bouquets of lilacs and peonies...filling tin cans with water and then putting them on the graves of her mom and dad, her brother Ted, and then Aunt Emily's baby who had died and Uncle Heber's daughter who had been hit by a car.  There is a wonderful climbing tree there and I know I loved seeing how high I could climb.

I think my strongest memory of Mom is her testimony and commitment to the gospel.  Many time I would go into her room when she lived with us and find her reading her "big print" Book of Mormon.  I will forever be grateful for the time she lived with us, as she demonstrated to my children what enduring to the end is all about!  What a good Mom!!!!!!  Alice