The Golden Years

     During the last two decades, we have often traveled for assignments, but have had the privilege of living at home and being close to family. One of the real joys of that situation has been my opportunity to help garden a half-acre plot of land belonging to our daughter Linda and her husband Peter that is close to our home. It has always been a very high priority to me to be out in the soil. I load up our mini van with tools and spend many hours a week down there during planting and growing season. We have been very fortunate to be able to flood irrigate the garden with water from the canal that runs directly next to the garden. We have grown peas, tomatoes, pumpkins, squash, beans, cantaloupe, and of course my favorite, corn on the cob. I don’t think anyone enjoys a plate of corn on the cob as much as I do. What a blessing to be able to spend my time where I love.

     I was given the assignment for several years to spend a couple of hours a week reading personal journals for the Church at the Church History Library. My main assignment was to go through all of Elder Marion G. Romney’s journals.

     During this time, I had a Friday morning assignment to be a sealer in the Salt Lake Temple. In addition, I was able to perform hundreds of sealings, particularly for those who requested them to be done in Spanish or Portuguese. What an amazing opportunity that was to be a part of so many young people starting their lives together. I have also sealed most of our grandchildren to their spouses, which has been such a special privilege for me.

      During the last several years, Barbara and I have chosen a date and invited any of our children or grandchildren who are available to come to do a sealing session with us and then to grab a bite to eat. The president of the temple has let us use his dining room so that we could eat together and discuss temple questions.

     Sports have always been a love of mine and it was wonderful during these years to play tennis every week with Arnold Wagner, Burton (Buzz) Tingey and Sterling Workman. I have never enjoyed watching professional sports, but college sports have always been of great interest to me, particularly BYU football and basketball. Once Barbara told me: “If Mars were playing Venus, you would be interested!” I responded: “You are right! If Mars were playing Venus, I would be very interested.” We have gone to Provo for many of the BYU football home games over the years and always been invited into the President’s box, which was lovely no matter what the weather the day of the game. I quite enjoyed the food and the football, and Barbara didn’t enjoy either. She was a good sport about going, and usually walked laps or interviewed the college-age servers on their life plans during the game.

     I have always enjoyed playing golf and had a favorite experience on September 7, 2016 at Forest Dale Golf Course when I got a hole-in-one! Arnold Wagner, Dwayne Liddell and Randy Ayre were there with me. We were up on a little bit of a hill and could see the hole clearly and watched the ball slowly roll in and plop down. You are supposed to call the club house if that ever happens and give the details and have the witnesses sign a form. Apparently, the chances for an amateur golfer is one in 2,500 to make a hole-in-one so it was a very lucky day. We have long told our kids that we do not need any gifts of any kind and a few days after that experience our son, Spencer, called from Provo saying that he had a gift he was bringing to us. We reminded him that we didn’t need any gifts to which he responded: “I bet you’ll like this one.” He brought this little trophy for us to place the lucky ball on. What a thing.

     We have always loved being with our family and these decades have given us much chance for that. We are almost always at a child’s home for Sunday dinner and they come visit us in our home.

     We always get together with the whole group on Sunday evening after the conclusion of the last General Conference session at one of the girl’s houses for “Conference Wrap-up.” This gives everyone an opportunity to share what their favorite part of conference was. We felt this was important to help the younger grandchildren listen to conference better, knowing they would be sharing something about it and to impress upon all the family members how important we felt Conference was for all of us. We eat a potluck dinner and always have a wonderful experience together.

     Instead of eating Thanksgiving dinner together on Thursday night we have always chosen to host it on Wednesday evening so that everyone would be available to come and free to go to their in-laws on Thanksgiving Day. What started out as dinner in our basement family room, moved to Linda and Peter’s house for several years until the dinner crowd grew to over 60 people, when we thought it necessary to move to our ward building. We have been using that ever since to host our large crowd. We have always invited friends and family that didn’t have another place to go.  Our circle has grown to include many dear friends over the years. We always have a delightful dinner together and then each person takes a turn standing and saying what he or she is most grateful for that year.

     For my 89th birthday, a handful of the family that were available came up to Amy and Don't cabin for a celebration. Family truly has meant everything to us!

Pictures taken March 5, 2020