A new responsibility

On Sunday, I was sustained to a new responsibility at church: President of the Relief Society for the Copper Basin Ward. For those of you who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, that means I have stewardship responsibility for all the adult women of my ward (the local congregation). You can learn more about Relief Society on Mormon.org here.

One definition of steward is one who actively manages and directs affairs for another. In this, that other is the Lord. This is a very humbling responsibility. The women range in age from 18 to 98, married, single, divorced, widowed, with kids, childless, life-long members of the church, recent converts. As you can see, there is significant diversity.

The good news is, I do not have to do this alone. I have two wonderful counselors to assist me, a secretary to coordinate administrative details, coordinators, teachers, and others to help us help the women (sister). Our motto is Charity never faileth. We define charity as the pure love of Christ. In short, I am tasked with helping these wonderful sisters come closer to Christ and each other.

I have never aspired to such a position. I know that it requires significant time to provide this service, and until recently, full time employment precluded my ability to offer that time. Now that I am (at least temporarily) retired, what better way to spend time than in the service of my sisters? A teaching from the Book of Mormon is that when you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are in the service of the Lord. Therefore, serving my sisters allows me to serve the Lord.

I started this off by saying that I was sustained. In our church, the local leader, the Bishop, prayerfully considers the needs of the ward and listens to prompting of the Holy Spirit on how to meet those needs. Over a period of time, he was told that I needed to fill this position. When he met with my husband and me to issue this calling, I immediately had a number of impressions come into my mind, one being that, while shocked, I was also prepared. 

Sunday at the start of church, the Bishop released me from my previous responsibility in the nursery, which I have loved, and everyone raised their right hands to offer me thanks for the job that I had done. Then he called my name again, asking me to stand, along with my counselors and secretary. Everyone then voted, again by raising the right hand, to sustain me in my new office.

Sustaining is more than a ritual acknowledgement of the responsibility. It is also supposed to mean that you will do what you can to help that person be successful in their responsibility, whatever that might be.

So, for this past two weeks, I have been pondering what the Lord would have me do and a number of ideas have come in response. I am mostly excited about what this new opportunity will mean. As when I have accepted a new job, I am also nervous and want to do it 'right.' Luckily, there is no one way to do it right, so I think everything will work out. Another saying we have is whom the Lord calls, he qualifies. I trust that he will do that with me in this new calling.


 

Don't let time run out

The Pro and I spent Saturday afternoon with his sons. We don't get together with them very often, but always have a wonderful time. We had lunch and spent some time visiting.

My cousin and I are planning a family reunion for next June. Our last major one was five years ago, although we had a slightly smaller one last year to celebrate her mother's 99th birthday.

 
I am attending a funeral service in a little while. My friend's sister, who was her best friend, died after a long illness. At least they lived in the same town and could visit together often. I love my own sisters, but they both live in California while I am in Arizona. That means I do not see them as often as I might like. The same is true of my daughter and step-daughter. We are all separated by distance.

I missed Dad on Father's Day since he's been gone for a while. At least we still have Mom.

I have been doing a lot of family history detective work and located the families of the Pro's grandmothers.  

Through Facebook, I am connected to friends from long ago as well as family and more recent friends. I love seeing what is going on in their lives.

What all this has brought to mind for me is the need for us to take advantage of the time we have. Many of us get so busy with our lives that we assume those who are important will always be there. We don't think about how it might be that they are there only in memory.

I am grateful I have the time and technology to digitize a lot of our memories. It is almost like spending time with those who are gone, as well as renewing acquaintance with those still here. I am grateful for social media, like Facebook, which allows us to stay connected even when separated by distance.

Do not let time run out-stay connected with your family and friends while you still can.

 

My mom is a bowler

When I was young, it seems that more people were bowlers. Even Fred and Barney Flintstone went bowling. There were plastic bowling games we could play on the lawn.
Then bowling became a lot more important in my family.

Ever since my youngest sister started school, my mom has bowled in a league that meets on Friday morning. At first, the league was associated with my elementary school. Over the years, the league as changed, the location has changed, the styles have changed, but the fun has not. For many years, the league had them pose for pictures, some of which are below.

Muriel Pohlman, Sara Eidsen, Kathie Vickers, Jody Gerrard

 Sara Eidson,Jody Gerrard, Betty Jo Duquette, Joyce Long

 

 

 

 

 

There have been frequent trips to participate in bowling tournaments in other locations, such as Las Vegas, over the years. My dad often drove Mom's team to Vegas in our motorhome so they could enjoy the ride in comfort. It became an important part of his birthday as one regular tournament always occurred at the end of August.

(Shirley, Marilyn, Mariel, Nora, Ardi, Jody, Annie, June, Johnnie)

Back when ABC carried the Pro Bowler's Tour just before Wide World of Sports, we watched every week that we were not out camping. It was a family activity just as Wide World of Sports or camping was.

I have played a few strings but have never really been a bowler. I think Mom's average has stayed pretty constant over the years. She even joined two leagues this year although she had back surgery and can't play yet. She still goes most days to watch her team and her substitutes play. She hopes to be back out on the lanes by summer.

Bowling gets you out of the house. It is great for socializing and meeting new people.  It provides exercise. This year, one of the leagues Mom is in is co-ed, expanding the pool of new friends. Her teams have changed over the years, as you can see from the early pictures. Some of the teammates have become closer friends than others. Now, on most Fridays, after the games are done, they go out to lunch together.

We have always known what Mom will be doing on Friday morning-bowling. When we visit, we go and watch. Our little ones have watched Mom and then played a few strings too. Now the next generation is doing the same. It is fun to watch the little ones try to be like Grandma. I am grateful for the place bowling has had in our lives.

Christmas morning at Grandma's

I am lucky that I had an uncle who liked photography. He made a set of home movies for my first Christmas that even had slides that named people. It is wonderful to look back at these and see how much our family changed over the years. He made a few others as well which we also have. These are after my baby sister was born.

Christmas morning was always spent at Grandma Gerrard's. We could go to my other grandmother on Christmas Eve, but Dad's mom required our presence. We would have wonderful coffee cake, but, as I remember, the only thing to drink was coffee or cream. And the cream wasn't even cold. But the coffee cake was wonderful because Grandma loved to bake.

We would all dress up in Christmas finery. I remember some of my cousins in matching outfits. We would each get one gift from a gift exchange with someone else in our generation. We sang lots of songs together with my aunt at the piano. When we got older, most of us would perform something, usually acting out a Christmas song or story.

We had a short time at home opening our gifts before we had to get all dressed up and head over to Grandma's house. We spent the rest of the morning with the family at her house. I loved that tradition even if I sometimes resented having to leave my new things at home to go. 

Once Grandma died, we had one more Christmas together at her house. I remember decorating the tree with my cousins who were older and far more mature (they were already teenagers and I wasn't yet). I felt so grown up to be able to help.

The years passed and Christmas morning moved to our own house with visitors stopping by throughout the day. More years passed, and Christmas morning was either drives down to Rhode Island to Nana's house, or a flight to California to Grandma's house. It was wonderful to have the extended family again for the holiday.

When I married again, I got to be one of the Grandma's for Christmas. Then my daughter provided additional grandchildren. One Christmas, they all slept on my living room floor. That was so fun. Since becoming Grandma, Christmas has usually been on the road visiting extended family. This past Christmas, we video-conferenced with two other locations while visiting all of the great-grandchildren at their Grandma's house.

I am grateful for the Grandma's that provide the memories for special occasions, like Christmas morning at Grandma's. I am grateful for all my cousins, aunts, and uncles who were there in my childhood to help make those wonderful memories.

Creating a reader

On my birthday in January 1965, I was a typical little girl turning 9. I was in the third grade. I was an average reader. To encourage that reading, my folks gave me five books for my birthday and changed my life.

These were the five books they gave me. I loved them. I read them multiple times. I found out my neighbor had others. I read those. I found out more were at the library. I read those. That summer, I rode my bike to the library every day, checked out 8-10 books (all that my basket would hold) rode home and read all day. I read every chapter book in the children's section and started reading adult mysteries. I have been an obsessive reader ever since. I became a speed reader that summer.

An added result was that my parents sent us to camp every summer after that. I think I may have scared them by becoming a hermit that summer. I could not even focus my eyes further than 2 feet away by the end of each day. Too much reading.

Besides the Nancy Drew books, I received a few Dana Girls (same author), and a few Judy Bolton books. I started saving my allowance and buying Nancy Drew books whenever I could afford it. I continued to do so because, during the 1960s, they rewrote most of the books but kept the title the same. I now have all of the hardcovers in both original story and rewritten where both exist. Sometimes the changes were minor, other times the entire story except the title changed. They said it was done to modernize the stories since they started them in 1929.

While I was reading these, my sister was starting on the Bobsey Twins. I never liked them as much as Nancy Drew but they were ok. The next year, Mom joined a book club for me and I got 2 Happy Hollister books every month. For years, those books would cheer me up when I was down or worried. I still enjoy them.

After that, Mom joined the Mystery Guild and let the primary books come every month. Most of them were way over my head. Some were not. I became an Agatha Christie fan. I got many of them from the book club and purchased others over the years. Then, Bantam came out with a matched set. It includes all her mysteries, her autobiographies, and  works she wrote as Mary Westmacott.

I discovered the world of police procedurals from the Mystery Guild and still enjoy them. I have some books from back in grade school when they first came out. Most of those authors are no longer alive.

Eventually, we added in the Little House books and Louisa May Alcott to my growing library. My cousins gave me 'The Secret Garden' when I was 10, which I think I reread at least three time per year until I was a teenager. I bought her other books when I got older. I still love them. I still have a huge collection of children's books which I still love to read.

As a result of all this, when I buy a house, one of the first considerations is space for the books. I have way too many books. But they are like friends. I re-read them and would not want to lose them.

This all helped when I had 3 history classes in college one term and had about 900 pages of assigned reading each day for over a month. At least I could get through it all.

While Nancy Drew and the other books of that ilk are not great literature, they fired up my imagination. I learned a lot and increased my vocabulary. They did not dumb them down for kids. I was exposed to lots of different cultures through these books. Because Nancy was the one who solved everything, I always supposed that I could do anything I set my mind to. She was probably a premier role model for me.

I am grateful my parents supplied my 'habit.'  Now, I mix online books with regular books. I still prefer the feel of a book in my hands. But ebooks are very convenient. I am grateful I was able to pass on this habit to my daughter and that she too loves to read. This is my way of escaping to another place. Most of those places are ones I want to visit often. Thanks to the authors who take me there.