A True Story

One evening in the small rural town of Burley, Idaho, Mother and Dad were at home and Dad was listening to BYU sports on the radio. It was after supper and their five children had long since married and moved away. Mother didn't want to interrupt the game and besides, she wasn't even sure what was happening, so she waited awhile before telling her husband about the pain in her arm and chest. Needless to say, they made a mad dash to the local hospital where the doctors determined that Mother was having a heart attack. She was life-flighted to Salt Lake City, Utah.

While Dad and their daughter, Beverly, drove south in the car toward Salt Lake, Mother felt her spirit leaving her body. She was in a white mist and moving. She knew she was going and she prayed. She didn't try to bargain. She simply told Heavenly Father that she wasn't ready to go yet. She told him that she wanted to spend more time with her family and she trusted that he heard her and would answer. She was 72 years old then and God answered her prayers. He gave her another twenty years together with us.

I've been trying to think of how my life would have been different if Mother had died then instead of now.

I wouldn't have had the pleasure of introducing mother to the women in my ward as "my good friend, and my mother-in-law."

We wouldn't have had the joy of having Mother and Dad living right over the back fence every winter during tree farm season, letting the children play and take turns eating dinner with them.

We wouldn't have enjoyed going to ward parties together, having family home evening, or just visiting in the living room in the evenings after the sun went down.

We wouldn't have pictures from the year we made old-fashioned tree garland from popcorn and cranberries.

I wouldn't have heard Dad bear his testimony of the Book of Mormon, sitting on a stool in the out building where he read the Book of Mormon cover to cover in between customers shopping for the perfect tree. It was the first and only time he ever said anything about it and I'll never forget the feeling I had, hearing his words.

If mother had died twenty years ago, she wouldn't have felt the influence of the holy ghost which prompted her to call us and beg us to tell Brandon not to drive across Nevada at night--a premonition that went unheeded. Such is the power of agency--but that's a different story.

They wouldn't have watched their grandchildren grow into responsible, kind, and loving adults with children of their own.

Mother wouldn't have heard Alyssa and Serena sing to her during a visit when they were students at BYU, something she enjoyed immensely and spoke of often.

If Mother had died twenty years ago, we wouldn't have her life story which she wrote and added to occasionally until it was pushing thirty pages and which we now can draw on as a source of strength.

Mostly, if mother had died twenty years ago, we wouldn't have enjoyed the blessings of a woman whose entire life revolved around loving her family and keeping her covenants with God. Her faith that God would answer her prayer became a great blessing to all of us. Mother, we love you and we'll miss you so much.