Reflections - I hope you can take a looooong story!

8-26-10 Lasca is 28 today. It got me thinking of when I was 28. You’ve all been 28. What were your 20s like? I would be interested to read your reflections on your 20s. Please write them down and send them to me.

Mom's reflection on her 20s. While sitting in the temple today I pondered what I was doing when I was 28. We were living in Logan and building our house in Smithfield. We had four children. The youngest (Cam) was under one year of age. Soon after my birthday we moved into our house. It was a lot of work painting, getting the yard in, window coverings, and making adjustments to our new ward, neighborhood etc. We were happy but had our share of challenges. My husband was a graduate student and locked himself in the bedroom to study every evening. We had a large garden and there was a lot of work associated with canning the green beans that it produced. We had a small splash pool (12 ft in diameter) that Christina and Blake got for their birthdays (7 & 8). My mother passed away the next spring. She had been sick for about four and a half months. She had angina heart problems. She couldn’t get enough oxygen. She was hospitalized about once a month for oxygen treatment. In the end the oxygen no longer helped and after three weeks in the hospital she passed away. I still miss her.
Soon after I was 28 I started having female problems. I went to many doctors until age 31 when I realized that my system couldn’t be jump-started and the chance of more children faded.
My early 20s. I had two children under one before I was 21. We moved to California. It was very expensive to live there. My husband worked six days a week and half the Sundays. Church was difficult. I had to manage both kids alone. I was called into the Primary Presidency assigned to cub scouting. Primary was held after school during the week. There were many Saturday cub scout training sessions put on by the stake. The stake center was 15 miles away. I didn’t know a soul at the training sessions. Some things were held in the mountains. I didn’t know my way around and it was hard finding the places. The whole program was Greek to me. (Sometime here in Mexico City I have the same feelings, I don’t know a soul and it is all Greek - espanol.) These sessions lasted all day. I had no one to tend my two toddlers. We had no parents, siblings or other family close by to help. Our friends were used a lot. We were dirt poor. I learned to make bread, pizza, and to sew the kids and my clothes to save money. Someone gave me an old coat. I took it apart and made one for Christina. We ate lots of hamburger. We had 1 lb a day for a family of 4 and later 5. At age 23 my husband was diagnosed with a deadly form of cancer. He had surgery Jan 10 1966 in Salinas, California friends tended my two toddlers while I was at the hospital and another surgery a hundred miles away in San Francisco Presbyterian Medical Center Jan 26, 1966. With no help it was difficult to decide just how to make it through. I was surprised when Marvin, age 18, ended up driving my mother to Salinas at the end of my husband’s stay in the hospital in Salinas. It was a difficult emotional time for me. I might be a widow at this young age. Mother flew back for the next surgery. It was a huge sacrifice for her and a difficult job tending two active toddlers for a week or more in a strange town with no vehicle. My mother-in-law rode the train to San Francisco and we spent most of our days at the hospital. A former neighbor in South San Francisco agreed to let the two of us stay with her at night. This was a difficult time. To top it off we lost a month of income. We had no back up money from unemployment or anything like that either. Another tumor was discovered at his three-month check up and a third surgery was required on May 30, 1966 in San Francisco again. Our friends, Theron and Margaret Hansen were still living in South San Francisco and were taking a vacation to Utah so invited me and the kids to stay in their home while they were gone. I got girls from the ward to baby sit when I needed to be at the hospital. The tumor turned out to be only a cyst so what I thought was the cancer returning turned out to be false. At that point good news was welcome. Later that year my husband was put in the bishopric and the next year became bishop. All of the responsibility for the kids and home fell upon me. I was 24 by now. It took my husband a full year to recover from these operations. He went to work at 5:30 am and got home around 3:30 pm. He would go to bed until time to do his Church work in the evening. It was a good thing he was determined to go to work every day. We were blessed to be strong to accomplish what we did. We were happy. The Lord had his eye upon us even then. Baby Braun came into our life. Our joy was over-flowing. When I was 26, my husband decided to go back to school for an advanced degree. Hopefully we would break out of the low income level we were living in. Eventually that led us to Utah. Back in Utah the cancer check up revealed a possible tumor in his body cavity. The test took 30 days to yield the results. We had a family fast with our extended family. One of the tender mercies I have received came at the end of that fast. I was given an assurance that the test results would be negative. And they were. Soon after we found we were expecting baby Cam. To this day we thank the Lord for his tender mercy upon us. By the time I was 30 my husband had a master’s degree in plant physiology and a doctor’s degree in botany. I typed his dissertation on a borrowed typewriter to save money.

Dad’s reflections on his 20s. I turned 20 on Aug 1, 1957. I was living and working at the USU fruit farm in North Ogden and waiting for my mission call that came shortly after my birthday. I went home to Idaho for a few days, received my endowments in the Logan Temple and entered the mission home on Oct 22, 1957. I traveled by train to the mission office in New York City. My first assignment was in Niagara Falls for two weeks, then to Buffalo for seven months or so. After the Hill Cumorah pageant in August 1958 I was sent to the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation. In March of 1959 I went to Rochester, New York and after pageant 1959 I went to Palmyra, New York. I left Palmyra in October 1959 and traveled home to Utah and Idaho by car with Barry Gilman. I worked in a clothing store in Preston until Christmas 1959 then went to For Collins, Colorado to attend Colorado State University. It was the best place to study floraculture. I had a good situation at CSU. I taught early morning seminary and had other church callings. One of my friends was Kenneth Hansen, a veterinary science student from Idaho and his wife Rae. In 1960 Rae Hansen’s sister, JoAnn Stucki, came from Idaho to spend the summer. That was the beginning of the most important thing that transpired in my life. We became acquainted and the next summer (1961) she came back. After my stint at ROTC Summer Camp from June to August 1961, we had about two weeks to become better acquainted. JoAnn had to return to Idaho the end of August 1961 and we continued getting acquainted by letters. After all, two or thee dates doesn’t quite make it. In October 1961 God answered my prayers and directed that I should propose marriage. I finished up my class work in May of 1962 and drove to Rexburg, Idaho. We were married on June 4, 1962, in the Idaho Falls Temple. I was nearly 25. We had a reception in Rexburg and one in Cleveland. Then traveled with my parents with us to Fort Collins where I was commissioned in the US Army (2nd Lieutenant) and graduated from CSU with high honors on June 8, 1962. I also received the highest award – Superior Cadet – given to an ROTC student. We put Mom and Dad on the train in Greeley Colorado then went to a job at a carnation greenhouse in Denver (Wheatridge) Colorado In August of 1962 we loaded all our things into our car – a little Nash Rambler, and drove to Fort Benning, Georgia for active duty in the US Army. We lived in an apartment in Columbus, Georgia. It was hot, humid and miserable but I made it through Infantry Officers Orientation School. The end of October we went to Baltimore, Maryland and Army Intelligence School at Fort Holabird. It was there we learned that our first baby was coming. We left Holabird the middle of March 1963. We were able to visit in Idaho for a few days then on to my assignment at Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona. A month after our arrival at Ft Huachuca, Christina was born on base. We lived in a house on base and met the Brimleys, Blaine and Norda, the Hills, Tony and Morris and the Sessions, Vernon and Sally – all members of the church. I worked in the G3 office on base and again taught early morning seminary. On April 22, 1964 Blake was born at the Fort Huachuca Hospital. I was nearly 26. We enjoyed life at Fort Huachuca. We would play games at the home of some friends almost every weekend. There were several enlisted couples who became close friends. We had barely enough income to live and JoAnn became an expert at budgeting our money to the penny. We made a few trips to the Mesa Temple, stayed at my cousin’s, Kent and JoAnn Germaine. In August (20th) 1964 I was discharged from the Army. We went to Idaho for a short visit then to South San Francisco and a job at Rod McClellan’s Acres of Orchids greenhouse. I had interview for a job with the Ball Seed Company in West Chicago but chose Acres of Orchids. It was a horrible job. The assistant boss hated me and made my life miserable. We meet Theron and Margaret Hansen from Logan, who also worked at Acres of Orchids. Rod McClellan turned out to be a first class liar. The ward was not too friendly – some people were good and we had church callings but after a year we were still the new couple. . I passed my 28th birthday in South San Francisco. I took the chance to change jobs and went to Yoder Brothers in Salinas We were determined to like Salinas and we did. We were in a small, friendly, struggling ward. We had been in Salinas only three months when I found out I had testicular cancer. The whole ward fasted for me but I had three operations in five months. Jan 10, 1966, Jan 26, 1966 (the big one) and May 30, 1966. I was put in the bishopric as 1st counselor to Bishop Scott, then 1st counselor to Walt Walton. On July 9, 1967 – I was made bishop. This was a difficult but happy time for us. We were able to buy a house and were blessed to adopt Braun. Money was tight and Mom had to budget most carefully. We made many friends there mostly in the church but a few outside. There was one man at Yoder’s who gave me trouble and finally I decided to go back to college and become a teacher. I was eligible for the GI Bill and was granted it. I turned 30 on Aug 1, 1967 and in 1969 we sold our house and moved to San Louis Obispo to attend school at Cal Poly. So with three children and a lot of hopes and faith we went back to school.