Sunday, February 4, 2018

Gentle snow fell this morning and tried to whiten the ground, but the temperature warmed and it all turned to rain.  It rained, and rained, and rained!  Glade was going to drive around the building so I could easily get into the car for Church, but the ground was soft and full of muddy puddles.  The ruts left in the lawn would have been deep so it wasn’t in the cards.  That meant I had to navigate the stairs.  It wasn’t nearly as bad as the first time I had to do it.  It took a little mental analysis to figure out what would work best, and then it all went fine. 

It rained hard all the way to Church and back home again and I was extremely happy I had brought my umbrella.  Glade wore a jacket and took his suit coat in a suit bag or he would have been drenched.  Anticipating what this first time back to church would be like made me want to just skip the idea today and wait until next week, but Glade persevered so I did, too.

I was so happy that I went.  It was refreshing to get out of the apartment and to see our friends and to be in Sacrament Meeting.  It was well worth the effort and inconvenience.  After all, who stays home from Church because it is raining, right?

A member of the stake presidency took time before testimony bearing and gave a detailed account of the events leading up to Pres. Beard’s passing.  He and his wife had been renting a house here for about seven years and they had just purchased an older home as a “fixer-upper” and had only been in the house for four days.  As I mentioned in another post, Sister Beard got up early and went to the gym, came home, and got in the shower, thinking her husband was just sleeping.  She started to feel very ill and then encountered her husband on the floor and started CPR while calling her daughter.  They were taken, of course, by ambulance to a hospital.

Please Everyone, check your home detectors to see that they work and change the batteries.  Cover all the bases you can to keep you and yours safe.

It was evident early on that he would not survive.  Their children gathered from across the country and soon decided together to take him off from life-support.  We were told that they hold regular family councils even though their children are scattered, and they had already discussed what to do in this kind of a scenario.  It made many things easier for them since they had been in agreement and already had made major decisions.  Pres. Nelson, the counselor who spoke to us today, encouraged everyone to consider family councils and stressed how important they were.  Good food for thought, especially since the Church has moved so strongly toward all kinds of councils in the auxiliaries and in families.  It was a very touching and spiritual meeting and I’m so glad I was there.

A fun surprise was in store for us today.  Guess who meets in our same building and is in the Kensington Ward?  David and Andrea Cook and their little girl Ada.  What a surprise it was to see them.  They waited for us until after our Sacrament Meeting and then we had a great visit.  It was so fun to see them.  They only live about five minutes away and we are going to go out to dinner some time before we leave—which is only four weeks away!

Our break-the-fast dinner tonight was right next door so it was very easy to maneuver the wheelchair there.  Yesterday, Glade walked to Safeway and bought delicious rolls and a lemon pie as our offering for the meal.  It was so nice to have a social environment and to visit.  But it has been a big day and I’m exhausted.  I just have to stay awake for two more hours and then it will be off to bed.

Hope you all had a great week-end.  And here comes another Monday!  Love you All 😊