Linda

Linda Ann Christensen born July 9, 1958

     It was a busy time.  I carried a full load of classes in the Graduate School, taught early-morning seminary at 6:00 AM, and also an afternoon institute class four days of the week, Monday to Thursday, and a class for married students each Friday night.

     Early in the year of 1958, we knew that Barbara was expecting a new arrival to the family some time near July.  After school ended, we moved again to Banida to help on the farm during the summer months. Mom and Dad Christensen took such good care of us and were always making sure that everyone had sufficient for their needs. They helped so many financially without any expectation or fanfare.

     We lived in the little house Dad had built for my Christensen grandparents sometime near 1937, when, for health and aging conditions, they moved from Central, Idaho to Banida.  Grandpa Ferdinand Christian Christensen soon passed away in 1938 and Grandma Elsie Marie Christensen, in 1954 while we were serving in the Air Force in South Carolina.

     I had always felt close to Grandma Christensen because we as a family had moved into that little house and lived with her after the Christensen Mercantile store and our home in the back of it burned down in 1939, until the C.S. Geddes house was remodeled so we could move into.

     (We had our first family air plane ride west from Charleston, South Carolina, to Salt Lake City, with Amy and before Susan was born, so I could speak at Grandma’s funeral.  Some details of that ride were a story in itself which I will share some time later.)

     The doctor expected that the baby would arrive in a week or ten days so Barbara prepared everything to be ready at the house including the laundry, ironing, cooking, cleaning, etc. We planned to travel to Midway on the 9th to be close to Salt Lake. On July 8th, very early in the morning, Barbara began to have contractions and so we grabbed the bag Barbara had already had packed, got in the car very early in the morning and took off.  I had called my Mom, Goldie, and she came down and to take care of Amy and Susan. At the fastest reasonable speed, Barbara and I traveled directly to the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City and had her admitted.  After several hours, Barbara had not made much progress toward the delivery and so we decided it was a “false alarm.”  We left the hospital and spent some time with her sister, Zelda and Larry Watts, who had an apartment close by.

     Not long afterward, the contractions began again, and in a few hours, Barbara delivered a beautiful little daughter on July the 9th, whom we chose to name Linda because in Spanish, as you know, linda, means pretty.  We were thrilled. What a precious little girl. We were and are so happy to have our wonderful, delightful Linda. She weighed the same as Stephen–8 pounds, 6 ounces–and was 20 inches long. She was a very good baby.

     After Barbara was released from the hospital a few days later, she stayed in Midway with her folks for some recuperation and I returned to Banida to work on the farm.

     In time for the starting of school in September, we moved back to Pullman, Washington.  Now, with four children in the family, we had a lot more to think about and found ourselves very busy and happy together.

     On the way, traveling back to Washington, we made our traditional stop at the cheese factory in Grace, Idaho, where we bought four large 15-pound “long horn” cheeses and then, in route, we would stop in Payette, Idaho, to buy several bags of powdered milk which we would mix half and half with whole milk for our regular diets.  We shared some of the extra cheese and milk with other married student friends as some of them shared other items with us that they had bought in bulk.  It was like a small “United Order” among the close-knit member married graduate students.

     Out at the Grange Hall where the Pullman Ward met for meetings, I remember the day in September, I was able to hold up Linda high in my arms and proudly introduce her to the brethren in Priesthood meeting opening exercises.

     

     At the end of the academic year, 1958-59, we did not return to Banida to work on the farm.  I had been offered, and had accepted, a position in the WSU Counseling Center as the one responsible for the Testing Center, administering the mental measurement tests including:  achievement, intelligence, interest inventories and psychological.  The $2,000 stipend for so doing was also attractive to us.

     What a joy Linda has been to have as a daughter!  She has always had an independent streak.  When she was just nine years old and we had just arrived in Mexico City with our family for the Mission President’s calling, she went missing and we found that she had walked alone to the grocery store several blocks away.  She has an excellent ear for music and was picking up Spanish with a very good accent at a very rapid rate.  She developed a “green thumb” very early on and worked part-time at Western Gardens and has continued to apply her interest and knowledge in planting and growing vegetables and flowers for themselves and many other neighbors and friends in the area who could use some help.  While in high school she was selected as the leader of the East High Pep Club and was effective in providing direction for all their intricate maneuvers.  She developed leadership skills and has served very effectively at the ward and mission levels.  She was invited at around nine years of age to speak at one of the Bonneville Stake Conferences and received a lot of commendations.   She has been very effective and supportive of her husband, Peter (Evans), as the wife of a Bishop, Stake President, Mission President and Area Seventy.  She is unusually compassionate and, independently and, voluntarily, continues to bake bread, help with flowers and gardening, and other service for a wide group of friends and neighbors. She and Peter have five wonderful children.