10/7/18 - Family Letter to Emma
Sup Emma!
Your knees OK?
My team keeps losing, and they 're just starting to give up.
How come your nick-name keeps changing?
I really miss you.
Hyrum
hey Emma ,
this Tuesday grampa Dean when thru the veil.
Are you doing any better, how are your knees doing?
We are praying for you.
we love you and miss you
Mari
Sweet Emma,
I hope you got the message that
Grandpa Dean passed away on Tuesday. I called the mission home
multiple times over a few days but no one answered and there wasn't an
answering machine. I also tried email the mission home with the
message. I'm sorry if you are just barely finding out. The funeral is
Monday (tomorrow). Grandma Charlene is doing really well. She has been
feeling glad that she was able to endure to the end with him. He was
only in the care center for a little over two weeks but she was with him
faithfully to the end. I'm really proud of her! I took some pictures
of Dean at the viewing. I will only send them if you want to see them.
He looked really good and has a bit of a smile on his face. We feel
that he is so excited to be up and doing missionary work. I will send
you pictures of some of the displays at the funeral. Both families
(Dean's and ours) has been working really well together throughout this
whole process. It has been fun getting to know some of Dean's kids
better. Dad has been awesome in helping Dean's kids communicate with
Grandma Charlene so there is no offense taken. Dean's kids have tried
really hard to show her love during this whole process. We counseled
Grandma to treat Dean's kids with: "kindness at all cost!" So far, so
good. Mari is speaking at the funeral tomorrow. She and Rockwell (one
of Dean's grandson's that is Mari's friend from school) will be sharing
memories of Grandpa Dean. Mari is quite sad about his passing.
Conference was great! Congrats
on getting another temple in Brazil (though not in your mission!). I
love how much this conference testified of the Savior! I really felt
like the theme of the whole conference (for me anyway) was "Get to know
the Savior...Do EVERYTHING out of love for Him!" It was awesome to see a
picture of you watching Conference. Did you watch it at Sister Sheila
Garcia's home? We did our usual Conference traditions (mixed with
funeral stuff). I am excited to see how 2 hour church changes things.
I really miss you, especially
during this funeral time. Even so, I know you are exactly where you
need to be. I hope you can feel our prayers and love for you. I'm
thankful for the Plan of Salvation. I'm so thankful that you are
teaching that plan to everyone you can. It is so important. Bringing
souls to Christ is the most important work.
We received your birthday cards
in the mail. Thank you so much! We are all really excited to read
them when our birthdays come. I want to hear more about those delicious
Brazilian strawberries!
Thank you for sharing your
special experience about your illuminated path. That is a beautiful
'vision'. "Keep loving, Keep serving, Keep going"! I cried such happy
tears as I could visualize exactly what you were saying. You were
inspired to share that with us this week. Thank you for blessing our
family!
We have been praying for your
knees. We have also been praying for your peace. It's never easy to
lose a loved-one. We are sending our hugs. I hope you can feel them.
We have been feeling your hugs too!
💜Mom
M,
We hope you are managing your
hills ok. We have been praying that your knees and back will be strong
enough to do all the work. I remember being in areas that required a
lot of physical work but I at least had a bike. We have attempted to
contact your Mission Home about Dean's passing. We wrote out ans
translated the word we wanted to say. We sent an email but we never
heard back. Mom called Salt Lake looking for help but they said to keep
trying. We figured you would get this email before they could notify
you. He passed in the assisted living facility in Riverton. He has
most of his kids around him. Grandma Charlene was visiting with him
with Dean's kids and got tired so she went home. He passed around 1:00
AM Monday night. Grandma has a lot of feeling right now. We are trying
to help her process them. I took the day off on Monday to help her and
your Mom visit the mortuary and work with Dean's kids. Grandma
Charlene was concerned there might be some confrontation around the
funeral. There was not. Dean's kids were awesome through the whole
process. They expressed a lot of love and gratitude through the whole
process. We had the Viewing tonight and it got a little rowdy. Most
Viewing are solemn and somber. this felt like a party. It was by far
the loudest Viewing I had every seen. A lot of friends gathering and
visiting. It has been emotionally exhausting but overall a good
experience. We are helping Grandma Charlene process it all. Everything
has been focused on getting ready for the funeral. Grandma Shea has
announced she wants to move in with Grandma Charlene. This has not been
received well. We shall see.
We started our Trek training
this week. We gathered the Story Masters and set expectations on what
we are hoping they will do. Your Mom is a great job. she always does
with these meetings. We have a lot going on that we are trying to get
organized. It feels good to finally start making progress towards
Trek. All the Story Masters were wide eyed and seemed a bit overwhelmed
during our meeting.
BYU is having another
challenging season. IT is a good season to miss. Mari has started
watching games with me and asking questions. She seems to enjoy
watching the games and learning. I wish we had something good to
cheer.
We will be having the Funeral
likely as you are reading this. We have you in our hearts and will keep
you informed of how it went. Keep working hard kid.
Love
Dad
Comments
Post a Comment