Family letter September 25 2022

 

September 25, 2022

Dear Family:

I was supposed to wait until next week to write to you, but I decided that my heart was full and that I needed to share with my family.  Sometimes things happen and you think that no one cares, or notices or that your life could only be a scandal to others who don’t know you.  And then years and years go by and you are able to share something from your experiences that helps someone else.  That happened to me today.

It was very nice sitting in Relief Society today.  We only have it twice a month now.  Being in Primary for 8-10 years caused me to really miss talking to other women in the ward.  Before Relief Society I had some nice chats with sisters near me and during Relief Society someone stood and offered a comment.  I immediately recognized this sister from 25-40 years ago.  She was someone that was in our stake when I was raising my children and someone that I was acquainted with because of serving in stake callings, etc. but hadn’t been necessarily close with.  After Relief Society I walked up to the front of the room and approached her and she recognized me immediately and she grabbed me and hugged me over and over and over.  She isn’t from our ward.  She lives in Utah now but was visiting a son and his family of one of the older sisters in the ward.  She wanted to know how I was and I told her I was fine.  Then she confided in me that she had been divorced for a year.  I didn’t know and was shocked.  She knew about my history and wanted to know how and why I was doing so well.  I told her that 28 years ago a dear friend who lived out of state sent me a newspaper clipping.  It said, “Success is the best Revenge.”  I told her that I’d had counseling, etc., but that sentence had changed my total outlook on life. She proclaimed that it was meant to be that she just happened to come to our ward.  She kept hugging me and I was so pleased that someone from long ago could see that I survived all that and that I came out ok. She said, “I can do it too, can’t I?”  Of course I said, “YES – it isn’t easy but you can do it”.   After 20 minutes, we exchanged telephone numbers and promised to call each other. 

I tell you all this because our lives rarely turn out as we hope they will.  Senior missions, traveling together after retirement, visiting our children together, welcoming them into our home all went out the window.  Judy passed away – that didn’t turn out at we all hoped.  Brad lost his wife to brain cancer – that didn’t turn out as they had hoped.  I do hope that your lives will be charmed, but don’t be shocked if you encounter illness, financial hardship, job disappointments, (even vacations that turn out to be huge disappointments), or things that you just think you can’t recover from. 

I’m here to tell you that you can recover.  Heavenly Father doesn’t run before us and shoo away any obstacles that appear in our way before they hit us.  He doesn’t come down and change things for us.  He expects us to encounter life head on.  He expects us to show him that we can take courage from his life and his words.  He expects us to do our very best and not give up.  But I’m also here to tell you that sometimes he sends someone else to help us.  He sent my sisters Glennda, Judy and my friend Kristine.

Today’s experience with my old acquaintance taught me that my experiences might be of an inspirational nature to someone else who is going through something hard.  I’ve been approached a few times in the last nearly 28 years by someone going through divorce.  Even though it’s been many years, maybe, today,  I helped her or maybe I can help her in the future.  I’m sure it’s a good thing that many years have gone by, because those hurtful first feelings are now history and in the past. 

I wanted to let you know also that autumn has yet to surface in the Pacific Northwest. Last Sunday afternoon I went to a Horse Farm way out between Sherwood and Newberg to watch one of my piano students compete in horsemanship.  I hadn’t driven out in the country for a long time and I noticed a lot of dead deciduous trees and evergreen trees.  The long hot summer has been hard on everything. The plants in our yards took lots of water to try to keep them from dying.  It was hard on trees and shrubs that normally survive Pacific Northwest Summers.  They don’t get irrigation like our yards. 

I had a great visit with Don, Scott & Glennda yesterday afternoon here.  I’m cleaning out my garage a bit and Glennda found a new home for the majority of the toys that Emery and Cooper loved so much a couple years ago.  I did keep a few that were Brad, Brian and Amy’s old toys.  I love my family.  I loved that visit with Don, Scott & Glennda. By the way we have decided that future cruises are probably out of the question.

Have a wonderful week.

Love Mom, Grandma, Gr-Grandma, Sister and Aunt Suzanne