Yesterday

Yesterday it snowed 8 inches. Yesterday was a beautiful day with the snow coming down and the kids were home from school. Yesterday was my worst day here so far. Yesterday was my Mom's graduation day from this earth. Yesterday she's been gone longer than I knew her. Yesterday I couldn't write what I wanted to. Yesterday I was sad.



I am extremely homesick. When I was a kid I would get really homesick every time I would be gone from home for any length of time. I thought since I am an adult I can surely handle any feelings of homesickness, boy was I wrong. You would think since my Mom has been gone for 15 years that yesterday would have been easier. I have not had a day like this for a long time. I completely blame it on being 2500 miles from home. There is not a day that goes by that I do not think about my Mom and the amazing example that she has left for me and my family. I think she was just to good for this world. This is a tribute I wrote about my Mom for a book my sister is compiling. It explains everything that I could put into words about her. There are also many other feelings that I could not express into words. I am so thankful for the gospel and the knowledge it brings to my life that we will someday be with her again. That we will hopefully not have any empty chairs in heaven. This was the only way I could bear yesterday. Mom on her wedding day. June 1956



Memories of Mom
By Rebecca

There are so many memories that I have of Mom. Some that are probably not even my own but being so young when she got sick and passed away. I have grown into adulthood hearing others memories of her and so I see her through Dad’s and many of my brothers and sisters eyes, as well as my own.
Mom very rarely called me Becca; she always called me by my full name Rebecca. My very first memory of Mom was when we were either stranded or just stopped to camp out at the park in Kanab, Utah. She used to wear these bright colored polyester outfits and while she was cooking our meal over the fire she somehow backed up and got to close to the fire and her polyester pants suit caught on fire and left a hole on her rear end. She was amazing maybe I was too young to realize the trauma of the event but I remember her still smiling through the ordeal.
We had many memories in Kanab. They always seemed to involve a broken down car. One such trip we were stuck during the summer for several days and we got a hotel room. The room was stifling the air conditioning seemed broken but Mom refused to complain. We decided to stay somewhere else the next day and when we checked out, mentioned that the air was broken in that room. They were shocked and said it was the coldest hotel room because it had its own air. The manager came as we were checking out and told us that there was a switch we had to turn on and showed us where it was and sure enough the air worked. Mom didn’t like complaining.
One thing that mom always called me was a ragamuffin. Now if you’ve never heard this word it means that you look like you’re dressed in rags. After Six older sisters of hand me downs what did she expect me to look like. When she would tell me to get dressed to go somewhere and see the result of my fashion challenged wardrobe she was usually upset with the ensemble that I chose. I even have the embarrassing pictures to prove it.
Even when she was scolding you, you knew Mom loved you. One time she asked me to come and help her with the dishes and I have this strange quirk that whenever my hands go in hot water I have to go to the bathroom. So this particular time I tried to leave and go and she thought I was just trying to get out of helping her and she swatted my rear and I wet my pants on the kitchen floor because I was so upset. I remember her feeling really bad.
I loved the summer she had classes for us four younger girls. She taught sewing and baking and I’m sure there were others but I only remember these two. She taught us how to make care bear cakes and how to use the sewing machine.
I always loved the one on one time I had with Mom. One of my favorite memories is calling on schools for the supplies she would try to sell them. Everyone else was in school so I got to go everywhere with her. We would get cinnamon twists from bashas or stop at Wendy’s for lunch and she would tell me that the car just drove itself into the restaurant so we could eat there. When I started school I would get to leave school during the lunch break and come home to eat lunch with her. She always had something ready for me when I walked in the door.
I used to have many nightmares as I was growing up and she would always let me come and lay by her, there were times that I could tell she did not want me in her bed and so she would only give me a sliver of space in the bed until I was so uncomfortable I would give up and go back to my own bed. When morning came she would cheerfully sing to us wake up you sleepy head. She would always prepare a hot breakfast before school.
The sunflower trips were always amazing. She would stay up all night just to make the trip enjoyable for everyone else. My favorite part of the trip though was the afternoons when the work was done for a while and I would lay by her on a blanket while she read or napped. I loved being by her side. She used to read me the book Keep Your Mouth Closed Dear or Fox on Socks and get mixed up with the words. She loved to read. She shared her love for reading with me. She also used to read Anne if Green Gables to us, one of her favorites.
She loved it when you would play with her hair. I remember spending hours combing, styling, and just running my finger through it for her. She would always let me sit on her lap during church and I would play with her face or she would rub my hands, and then she would start to fall asleep and she would tell me she was just resting her eyes. She did that a lot.
Mom always tried to make us be better than we were. I was getting ready for school one morning and as I kissed her and said goodbye she told me I was missing something I asked her what it was and she said, my smile.
Mom was truly an amazing person. Some of my favorite memories of her are her kindness, compassion, love, hugs, smiles, her laugh, her love for our Dad, her willingness to serve, her spirit, her endurance, her healing hands, her curlers (I have them and whenever I open the box they still smell like her), her inviting home, her stories, her bed, her quilts, her everything. She truly was and is now an angel mother. She was too good for this world. She felt guilty for leaving all of us. The Lord blessed her to stay and raise us until he needed her back home to help prepare Heaven for the legacy she taught such an amazing example to. I hope someday I can be as good as she truly is.