MY MOM…
This is a biography of things I remember about my Mom.
She was born on September 15, 1889 in Sharon, Idaho to pioneer stock parents.
I am not writing very much about her growing up years. Instead I will just tell things that I remember of her and things I have heard my brothers and sisters and Dad tell about her.
I always called her Ma, although I knew her name was Retta. Or I thought that was her given name and I did not find out until the day I got married that her real name was not that.
The day we got married, the gal at the Salt Lake Temple asked me some things about my parents. Among them was her maiden name and I told her Retta Wixom Tippets. My brother, Joe, was there and he said that in the temple they have to know the real name. I told him that was her name. He said it was not, that her real name was Hannah Emeretta Wixom. That was the first time I had heard that and I was 22 years old at the time.
I cannot recall any interesting things that I can say about her while we lived in Riverdale or Kanesville, for I was only four and five years old at the time. But she must have had it tough, having, I think, eleven kids at home at this time. Lucile and Maurine were already married.
We moved to a house on west Seventeenth at the time that I was five years old, for I started school at Mound Fort.
I cannot remember about the house at all.
One night most of us kids had gone to a movie and on the way home we could see this bright light off to the west and as we got closer, we could see it was a large fire. We turned down Seventeenth and could see it was around our house. They had the road blocked off, so us little kids had to stay in the car and the older brothers ran down there to find it was our house completely engulfed in flames. But my Dad had woke up and finding the house on fire started throwing things out the windows, at the same time helping my Mom and little brother, Lou, out of the window that he had thrown a large red cedar box. In the process, Mom got a very large cut on her left arm on glass. I cannot remember how she got it fixed, but she carried a large scar on that arm to her grave.
They managed to save a few things, but not much. On the other hand, we probably never had much to save. But he got Mom and Lou out safe.
We moved just around the corner from there for a few months, then moved out to 226 29th Street. This was a little larger house, not as good a neighborhood or school, but it taught us to be tough. To this day, I cannot think how so many of us lived in such a small house and had no problems that I can recall.
From here in the summer, we would go out and pick fruit. We had nothing else to do the rest of the year. Mom, I remember, never picked much fruit. She picked raspberries for Story’s for half, and she always seemed to give them the best of the picking, for that was her nature. But most of the time she stayed home and tended the younger of us, although I went out and helped most of the time. Even at this young age we had to earn our salt.
My Dad caught me one day, instead of picking cherries, I was shooting my flipper at squirrels. With one hand, he broke it in two and threw it in a pile of bushes. I was told to get back to work. Play would come later.
Mom always got along good with the neighbors. I cannot remember her ever getting in an argument with any of them at all. And we had at least one ornery one. But that was the kind of person she was.
From here in May of 1939, we moved to 360 18th Street. And let me tell you, this was a mansion compared to what we were used to living in and Mom must have loved it.
There were at least six bedrooms, a large kitchen, large living room and large front room. And not long after that, Pa even put a bathroom in the house. We were in style.
It was in a very good neighborhood, close to our ward, within walking distance of Mound Fort school, which was a relatively new elementary school and Junior High.
The year we moved to this house, Mom was fifty years old and still had a six year old, a nine year old, a twelve year old, two fifteen year olds, a seventeen year old, and a nineteen year old still at home. And if I figure right, that was eight of us.
Even with this big, big home, Mom and Dad still had to share a bedroom with Lou and myself upstairs, for Ray and Edna moved in two bedrooms downstairs for a year or two, for I imagine they never had money to pay rent, so Ma and Pa let them move in with them. I don’t think they appreciated it much, but on the other hand, I don’t think I ever appreciated them the ways I should have done.
Ma still had to cook on a wood burning stove for a few years. And the house was heated with that stove, plus a heatrola in the front room, which we burned coal in most of the time.
When Ray and Edna moved out, Ma and Pa moved into one of the rooms downstairs and Nellie and LaRue moved into the other one. Which made it a lot easier on my parents not to have to climb those nineteen steps to go to bed. I never heard them complain about it, though.
I do not remember Ma going to Church every Sunday, but I will guarantee you that we always had clean and nice looking clothes to wear to Church all the time and she encouraged us to attend and participate in everything we could.
When they asked me to be in the Deacons’ presidency, I never told her about it and when she found out, she was not only hurt, but let me know that it was a very important calling and was very proud of any of us when we achieved things like this.
As a deacon, we gathered fast offerings and she would wake me up early so I could be over and get our own street done, for we not only had four or five houses to go to, we had a whole street with probably fifteen houses on each side of the street and it was fun to do it.
She insisted on us being honest at all times and telling the truth at all times and not stealing. Which reminds me of a time that I stole a deck of cards from Newberry’s and took them home and wrapped them up in a package and put my address on it with Clarence Bassett, my nephew’s, return address in the corner. I put cancelled stamps on it and when the mail came I made sure I was the one to bring it in and showed her what I had got from Clunk. She took one look at it and boy, was I in trouble. For two things. First, for stealing and second even more, was for lying. And when I had to take those cards back to Newberry’s and give them to the manager and tell him what I had done, it was devastating to me and it cured me for life, I hope.
She was like this. She could see through you like a window and insisted on honesty and frankness and no imitation attributes in our personalities.
I don’t think there was a more well read lady on earth. She read continually and only from good books which she could learn things from and tried to make sure we did the same.
One time I got hold of a book named Jernagan. I had only gotten into the book a few pages when she saw what I was reading. I don’t know how she knew what it contained and maybe she just had an inkling what it was. Anyway, she grabbed it and threw it into the heatrola before I could say a word and told me to get something decent to read. And I cannot ever remember reading another off color book since. Wish my kids were the same.
One day in sixth grade I was in home room eating lunch with other students and somehow or other an orange started to getting thrown around room and I had it and my buddy told me I could not throw it through window across the room and I took up the challenge and window only being open a foot or less I sorta missed the opening and hit wood right above it and orange be kinda soft from being thrown around room splattered on window and windowsill and at the same time door opened up and in walked Mrs. Yates and boy was I in bad bad bad trouble. She made me go clean it up which I should have done anyway and then she made me go to principal’s office and tell her what I had done.
When I left her office I felt so bad and small I never went back to room instead I went home and told Mom I was sick.
Ma got phone call from teacher and she was told what I had done and made it sound like it was the unforgivable sin. This is one time that my Mom went against authority of school and though I should not have done it it was not nearly as bad as the teacher and principal had made it sound like. She sent me back to school with a note saying that she had talked to me about it and would not do it again. She felt like the punishment should fit the crime, and in this case they had went overboard. All I can say it was lucky I had not been aiming at the door and happened to throw it just as Mrs. Yates opened the door. Woweeeee, I may not have lived through that one but I would have probably died laughing. I never ate lunch in her room the rest of the year.
When I lost my sight I was ashamed to let any one know about and she was first one to notice that I was holding papers close to my face to read them. At first I told her that I was just goofing off but later I told her about them but it took me two weeks before I got up the nerve to tell her.
Before I told her though I had went to Doc Ruchmert and had him check them and he told me to go home and put hot packs on them for a week or two and then come back if they did not change.
They did not change so I went back and he sent me to Doc Anderson and he checked them and even gave me a spinal tap and he could not find what was wrong.
He in turn sent me to Doc Harding who was an eye specialist and after I came home from him is when I told Ma and Pa of my eyesight loss.
They were very concerned about it, Ma more than Pa, although probably there was no difference in their concern for me.
I will tell more of my eyesight later in my history if I make it that far.
Now to carry on to Ma being helpful.
When I had gone to doc and couldn’t find anything wrong with them he would send me to other specialist in Salt Lake and Ma was with me every time.
I one day got very upset at not being able to do something that I had done all the time before my loss and kicked a hole in door out of spite and it made my Mom really start crying.
She said that it was her fault that I had lost my sight. This woke me up and I asked her why and she quoted a passage out of Bible. It goes sorta like this. Pharisees asked Christ after they had brought a blind man in to him saying, “Who sinned here before that he should lose his sight, the lad or the parents?” and she said it was her that caused it for something she had done.
Later I happened to hear someone read the same quote out of Bible and that is what it said except it lacked one thing she did not finish the verses to do with it.
Anyway at that moment I decided that if my Mom who had never in the world done anyone wrong would take the whole thing on her shoulders, just like Christ took all of our sins on his shoulders, I would not complain of my problem anymore.
Although I get upset millions of times for not being able to recognize folks or do other things I try not to let it be known.
I try to make myself look just as normal as anyone. Sometimes I make a fool of myself by trying to fake it through things. I do not ask for any mercy or feel sorryfulness from anyone.
I can honestly say it was my Mom and her helpfulness that gave me this attitude and the ability and desire to fight through obstacles that arise.
This is continued on July fourteenth ninety one, waiting to get ready to go to church to hear Rachael talk in their ward.
Mom used to like us to participate in any kind of activities that were available for us whether at church or at school or just around neighborhood.
I was called to the deacons quorum presidency and for some reason which I do not know why I did not tell her of it and the next week when they set us aside as presidency I went home from church and she asked how church was and I told her that I had been put in and she was very very disappointed because I had not told her of it.
She let me know in no uncertain terms that that was a very important calling for me and that even president Roosevelt did not have as much authority as I had just being a deacon and me being in Presidency was even more important and from then I always told her of things that I had accomplished.
Both myself and Thad made basketball teams at school and there was only one time that I can remember her going to one of our games and that was when Thad was quarterback on football team and it would so happen that it was during this game that Thad hurt his knee and finished his football career, and he was the star of the team. He was so big and strong that after he hit the line a couple of times so hard that the other teams sorta let him run wild or maybe he was just that good.
He had operation on his knee and played basketball for Ogden High and also Weber College and never had much trouble with it. Mom felt bad about his getting hurt but never made us quit participating in them.
I feel she would have liked to have watched us more but it was so hard for her to get around with her bad heart but she did give us all the encouragement possible, and also she was very proud of us for making these teams.
Lou and John also made the football teams at Mound Fort and played most of the games. John was so strong that he played tackle on team and he could block two kids and reach out with his arm and trip another one which was kinda unfair but he got away with it most of the time.
Even playing ball around the house she never got mad at us for wearing the grass out. You could tell when we played ball, for grass was wore out at each base and once in a while a stray ball might find its way through a window. She would tell us to be more careful but did not make us quit playing. I guess she would sooner see us play there than worry about us somewhere else.
Ma always worked very hard and even when she had her heart trouble. Which she got, by the way, during the war. She had five sons in service: Joe and John were in Navy, Reed and Ray were in Army, and Gene was in Air Force, also LeRoy was in Army as was Less Gomm and some of them where it was mighty dangerous and between her worry about them and her being kinda fragile health anyway she got pneumonia and it was so bad that it left her with a bad heart.
She always wrote to all of them and I would like to get hold of some of the letters that she had wrote to them.
I would just about guarantee that there was always plenty of encouragement for them to let them know that we were behind them here at home and having eight kids besides them and one of them me it was tough on her to just keep things going around the house.
On top of all these troubles she during the war always had boarders at our home. For there was only Thad, myself, and Lou and LaRue and Nellie, which LaRue got married some time early during war. So we had room and how she kept everything up I will never know.
She would have their washing, cooking, and other things to keep the household going.
One thing that I did not realize until later that none of these boarders ever brought the ration coupons for sugar, gas, and other things that we needed. They would leave them home with their families to use instead of bringing some of them to Ma and so we got used to eating honey on our mush and other things like that instead of sugar.
It seems like she used to make six large loaves of bread at least three times a week and though I did not know it was hard to knead bread, she did it without any complaining.
We never had an overabundance of money but on the other hand I cannot ever remember a time that we never had food in the house and for this I have to give credit to both my Mom and Pop.
I have heard my Dad say many times that the reason why some families have a tough time of it, the lady of the home could throw things out the back door faster than the man could bring it in the front door. Which I took to mean that the lady would throw away a lot of good things that could be saved for another meal, or if it was clothing, when one kid grew out of a shirt or pants or coat that it was put away until it would fit the next one coming up.
Kids nowadays think it would be an insult to wear hand me downs where in my case I was proud to wear hand me downs especially from my older brother Thad although he was always so much bigger than I that I would have to wait a couple of years before I could wear his and in some cases after he got in teams I never did get that big.
Pappy used to bring home strawberries or other fruit that he bought for cheap for they were ready to put up at that moment and …
… stretch out in those days.
Although Ma as far as I can remember never gave a talk in Church, but that did not mean that she did not believe in the Mormon church nor did it mean that she could not have done it, but what it did mean as far as I am concerned that she was very well versed not only in the church but in all things regardless of what the subject. She was a very quiet and serene person and would never volunteer to do any of them things and I wish I could have a recording of some of the things that she counseled us on.
She reminded me a lot of Eleanor Roosevelt. Neither was the best looking woman in the world but as far as being knowledgeable they were both in same groove and I am sure that if Ma had been put in a position of any kind of leader that she could have done as good of a job as any one on earth.
She could sit down and write us a two and a half minute talk on any subject that would be asked for and do a fine job.
One year during the war, right after it started, they had a radio program called Why I Am Proud to Be an American. They asked to write a short essay on this subject and Thad asked her to write him one and doggone if he didn’t win first place prize that week, which was a football. So me not wanting to be outclassed asked her to write one for me and she did and I won first place the next week and won me a new football.
This may have been a little bit wrong to have her do it but it surely made us feel proud of her and what she had done and how I would have liked to have a copy of them essays today. This happened before she had five sons go in service although Reedy Pie was in at this time.
She was proud of them being in service and in our front window at first we had a banner with two stars on it then within a few months we had another banner with three more on it, a total of five sons in service. She would write to all of them regularly wherever they were.
I may have mentioned it before but having these five sons plus two son-in-laws in service really got to make her worry a bunch about them and she got in bad health and got pneumonia and it left her with a bad heart which she never got over.
This lady who before the war was a robust gal after the war was a very much older gal and could not do hardly anything that she wanted to do although she would try so hard to keep up with things that she had been used to doing all of her life, could not do any of them without having to sit down and rest every few minutes, but complain she never did.
During the war she took in boarders also which made it harder on her than ever. I would guess in overall she had at one time or another at least thirty extra boarders stay at our house during the war.
She was always trustworthy on anything that was given her to do. When she said she would do something, it got done one way or the other, and it has worn off on the rest of us, for I cannot think of one of my family that being asked to do something to do and said they would do it, it got done, and got done in best way …
… order of the scout law which as youngsters she encouraged all of us to participate in the scouting program available.
With these five sons in service she had to be loyal to our country and I cannot ever remember her say that we never had the best country in world and I am sure she loved it very very much, and honored the flag.
She I believe was a Republican most of the time for she used to say that she and Pa cancelled out each other’s votes and I knew that Pa was a Democrat but she voted the way she felt good about.
She was loyal to her family and honored Pappy very much although they did get in arguments once in a while. She honored his priesthood leadership and I believe always gave in to him in the end.
Her main idea in life was to be helpful to everyone, whether it was helping us with our homework or putting things together or tearing them apart.
There is no one in all thirteen kids that had more help from Ma than did I. Especially after I lost my sight.
She could not help me out with my math for I don’t know as if she had ever went beyond the grades that they taught algebra and geometry and such.
At the end of my junior year I needed an essay wrote on anything and so she sat down and helped me write one on our street, eighteenth street, and would you believe it, I got an A on it from the most critical English teacher in world.
We wrote of the large trees in front of our house and the things that we derived from these trees, such as the shade it offered us, a habitat for birds, something to climb and see forever across the country, and many other things of just a simple thing as a street.
As I look back on those days it was a perfect street. Neighbors were good, houses were nice, and so forth.
She helped all of the girls learn how to cook and sew and probably most of everything that they had to learn and they honored her very much for taking her time to teach them.
July twenty eighth, nineteen hundred ninety one, Sunday, ten a.m.
Now as I look back at those days I realize now that my Mom was very concerned about my accomplishments. But me being young and dumb did not confess in the things that I had to face and the obstacles I had to overcome; instead I more or less kept them to myself.
She deserved better treatment from me than I gave her, but like so many other mistakes and wrongdoings that I have done in my life, I pray that she will forgive me and realize that I had not grown up yet.
I would walk home from school at noon when I was a teener and she would be out hanging our clothes on line and instead of stopping and helping her I would just go in house and fix my lunch and not bother at all about her standing out in the weather, hot sun or freezing weather, and hang them up herself and never a word of complaint from.
We as brothers would get in fights once in a while and when fists started to fly she would wade right in between us and break it up.
More than once I know that she got a wayward swing from one of us boys. But she was willing to do anything to keep us from fighting one with another, or for a fact she did not like anyone to fight. She said fighting never solved anything. For the winner was also the loser.
Ma used to make most of our clothes. She did not have one of these fancy electric sewing machines, but an old treadle machine, which she would sit in front of hours at a time sewing our shirts, pants, and other things so we would look nice wherever we went.
When I had my eyes operated on, she would come up to hospital just about every day if she had a way. Once she knew that no one would be up to see me one day and, her never learning to drive, could not find another way to get there. Ma caught a bus, rode it downtown, transferred to another bus, and came up to hospital to see me.
This does not seem to be that much of an ordeal to do that but to her to be in as bad of health as she was at that time, it was a major ordeal.
Let me explain to what extent this would have been. When I was home for the last three weeks of each operation, I had my bed in back room of house. Her heart was so bad, she would have a chair in living room, one in her bedroom on each side of her bed, and one in my bedroom.
She would fix my lunch or breakfast or supper and bring it into me. She would have to stop at each one of those chairs and sit down for a few minutes and rest and get her breath. Then she would move…food all of the time.
I can’t remember how long it would take her to walk from kitchen to my bedroom, but I will assure you that it was several minutes at each stop.
So for her to come up to hospital to see me and have to walk even half a block would be a major undertaking. Then after she had visited with me she would have to repeat the process and go home.
I am sorry to say that I at the time probably did not even appreciate how much my Mom did for me and me being the one in family that did not deserve this good of attention. I was a scally wag.
Like the song goes, “You always hurt the one you love, the one you should never hurt at all.” She was too good of a woman to deserve a jerk like me as a son. And in saying this I am not kidding. She was too perfect a woman to have to put up with me, and I pray that the Lord will help me make up for how I treated her and never appreciated the love and concern she had for me in spite of how bad I treated her.
At the time I did not think I was such a crumb but after hearing some of my brothers talk of the things that I had done and not done for her I deserve all of the bad things that has happened to me and for my sake I hope the Lord will forgive me.
I feel like even today I treat my sweet wife just about as bad and like Ma she does not complain and she surely has a right to do so.
There are three women who I think were made out of the same heavenly mold. My mom, my mother-in-law, and Barbara all three deserving a spot in the highest degree of Celestial kingdom. All three went through hell while they were on earth and do this with a happy heart and dispositions and a very forgiving attitude. And if they all three don’t get there, there is a very un- let’s forget the rest of that.
Ma could see through anyone. Times we would bring one of our girlfriends home, and she would be very very cordial with them. There is only one time that I can think of that she was concerned with a girl. It was after I had an operation on my eyes and was still in bed and this gal came to see me and she was not only sitting on the side of my bed, but she was leaning over me, just about on me, and I know Ma did not see this but she sensed it, and she sent Dick Stump, who was living with us at the time, come in and sit with us till she left. No nothing would have happened regardless but Ma just did not like the gal. Dick Stump later got killed in lumber mill accident.
Dean Bassett later married this gal for awhile. She was something else, I think not good.
I sure wish that Barbara would have had the chance to have met my Mom. They would have LOVED each other, without a doubt, for they were two peas in a pod, or more better, two angels in a cloud.
My sister Nellie took Ma back to the world’s fair in Chicago. I think it was thirty nine or forty that they went back there and …
Although I cannot recall her ever telling things they saw - other than the trade center.
Ma I believe lost either four or five brothers during the flu epidemic in nineteen ten and why it did not hit our family I don’t know, for all thirteen of us kids grew up to be healthy, not wealthy, and some of us not very wise.
There are times that some of us did not get along mostly me and them for they got along good together but I seemed to always have some of them upset at me and for reasons I don’t know but it must have been my fault for it seemed to be that way. I guess I was contrary.
When I was eight or nine years old, my Dad told me to do something and I told him no. As soon as I said it, I knew I was in trouble, and when my Pa started after me I started to run and once I started to run I did not dare to stop and so round and round the house on twenty ninth street until Reed stopped me and Pa was so tired at this time he took me in house and told Ma to whoop me but she never did. She I think got a kick out of it and maybe Pa did too but they did not let me know it at the time.
That was the last time I ever remember telling one of them no for it was just not done and we knew it.
Continued on August eleventh Sunday eleven thirty a.m.
To think of how many kids sass their parents and not only tell them no but tell them heck no. To me that is a very large deterioration of our American heritage. It does not show any respect at all and just shows us what little regard some kids have for their peers nowadays.
Ma and Pa were very proud of us when we accomplished something, whether it was giving a two and a half minute talk in church or playing on some team or another. They very seldom attended these functions themselves but they surely did encourage us to participate.
Ma used to, when we were all home or even during the war when we had some boarders, she would fix a large double boiler full of soup or spuds or whatever we had to have and it would be all licked up.
In them days we did not eat just things we like best like kids do nowadays. We ate what was set before us or we went hungry. One day I told my Mom I did not like bread pudding and my Dad got upset and said that my Mother did not fix anything that was not good to eat and I was to get off my high horse and eat what was on table. I cannot remember what it was for. I don’t think of anything now that I did not like that she fixed.
I tell you now since she has died I have not tasted bread pudding nor rabbit stew nor head cheese biscuits as big as your two hands clasped together. Plum pudding, mulligan stew… Barbara has fixed soup and dumplings once in awhile but for some reason that don’t hit the spot like Ma’s did. Maybe it is because she fixed so many other things that are really good instead.
She used to make meatloaf and I can remember her putting in bread crumbs along with onions and other standard things that you put in meat loaf. I imagine the bread crumbs were to make the meat loaf go further and it was still good.
I don’t think she knew how to read a recipe book. I don’t think she owned one that I ever saw anyway. She would just flavor beans, soup, or whatever she was cooking to taste and if it needed a pinch of ginger, nutmeg, or anything else she would add it.
She used to fix liver and onions. I ate them but I cannot recall liking it. Maybe I did but I doubt it.
Also when we got sick she would have us drink tea although I can only remember drinking it once as a teenager. I was very sick at stomach and it did cure it.
When we had a chest cold she would fix a mustard plaster and put on our chest. The only thing I can think that it done was to burn my chest but it must have done some good or she would not have done it for us. I think she called it mustard poultice. It was not mustard that you put on hot doggies – it was spice mustard, comes in yellow can powder shape.
Ma never used to go and visit anyone that she did not, if they fixed a meal she would go and help do the work and that included dishes afterward.
She was not alone in doing this I think it was common courtesy to when folks come a calling they was fixed a meal while they were there and Ma did this and all of my sisters did the same for that is just something that you did regardless. If you served the last spud and grain of flour you had, you shared your food with their company.
I am sorry to say that very very few people do it nowadays. Lucile and Maurine and used to be Mildred and Nellie, LaRue did a lot although she moved around so much when she was younger married. Ruby always has some homemade bread and jam for you now but it is not done much anymore.
I have been told that Ma could go out and wring a chicken neck and have it feathered and cleaned on stove cooking in half an hour. I can believe it. I don’t even have heart to wring a chicken neck let alone other things. I don’t even know how to clean a chicken.
Sometimes I would not make a good old timer although I am getting very forgetful. That is the only thing I could do that the old timers did.
August twenty fifth, Sunday
Continuing with what I know and remember about my Mom.
By the way, four months from today will be Christmas day. I am excited very very much.
My Mother was very conservative in saving and not wasting anything. She had a knitted dress which either got wore out or she got tired of wearing and she could not afford yarn to knit with so she unraveled that whole dress and rolled the yarn in big balls and then she used the yarn to knit scarves and other things to use later.
To think of the clothing that we waste nowadays some folks buy a new dress or shirt and maybe wear it once and then it gets sent to Deseret Industries and sometimes they don’t even wear them. They get home and find they do not match what they thought they would and so they never use them and we are somewhat that way ourselves but not as bad as our kids and our folks were not as bad as us.
I can just see our predecessors going into Deseret Industries and how they would be so happy to have them clothing in there to wear for best which in probably most cases better they had ever had new.
Sure it is nice to say that we can afford to do this but in most cases especially young couples cannot afford to do this for that money could go for something else that they could put use to.
Even our own kids and grandkids each kid has to be fixed something special that they like to eat for each meal.
Ma got to having a bad heart in that last few years of her life. She could not sleep laying down and many times I would come home from dates and she would be sitting in chair for she could get some little rest this way.
The night that Pa took Ma to hospital was just too busy to even go up with her for I had a date and this is something I will never forgive myself for. Not even taking a few minutes to help Pa take her up there. And the Lord will remember my unconcern on this matter and I will be judged according and rightly so. For remembering how hard it was for her to get up to hospital to see me and then me not even to do that much for her.
In the hospital she lay under her oxygen tent having such a hard time even breathing then.
Some of the nurses up there treated her bad. She called one of them “Buttermilk” which was the term that she used towards someone that was sour, I guess, and she must have been or Ma would not have called her that for she used to say if you could not say anything good about anyone, not to say anything, and she truly believed in this. She could find some good in every one.
The morning that she died I was working out to Second Street as a fireman working from ten at night till six thirty in morning and on this particular morning I ran out of gas on way home at Second and Wall and had to walk home and when I got home everyone was there and I knew that that is what had happened and in that moment I finally realized that I had been a very very bad son not caring about the sweetest woman that had ever walked this earth and it is too bad that we are so dumb as teenagers.
We all went to pick out casket although I don’t think I said anything about what was chosen.
We had a very good funeral, was very good. It was on a Saturday. I even went and bought a new suit. I cannot remember too much that was said. I think Bishop Pledger talked, also Bishop Carrol and Bishop Sanders.
All eight of us boys were the pallbearers, which was a big big honor, to be one of the sons of such as perfect couple as were my folks.
I pray that someday in the hereafter if the Lord is willing to let me visit with them up where they are from down where I will be, maybe they will forgive somewhat.
Both of them are buried in the Ogden City Cemetery next to each other, and I am sure that is where they are in the Celestial Kingdom close to each other.
They are probably patiently waiting for the rest of us kids to come to them so they can continue to teach us in the eternal Heavenly setting which they are in although they may be somewhat ashamed of me but I am sure that they still love me. I hope anyway for I love them very much and am most appreciative of them now that I have grown up and am anxious to bring along Barbara to show them to her and how that at least I picked a perfect handmaiden to spend the rest of my life here and beyond.