Home Sweet Home

Home...This is the only house I ever lived in growing up. It was a great place. When we first moved in, there were very few houses anywhere close. The "Bayshore Freeway" or the "101"was just a dirt road. Very fast the area built up and homes were built on the block and new families came. Before I was very old nearly every house that was built had a few children until there was appoximately 40 children on the block. Some of these families were: Welte's, Felciano's, Wik's, McDonalds, Smiley's, Susinetti's, Potters, Pablais, Curtwright's, O'Conner's, Skinner's, and Tagert's. Eventually the Baum's, the Roy's, Consani's around the block, Lewandowski's, Randall's, the Houston's and many more. We played 'Hide & Seek', 'Kick the Can', 'Pinky' from the middle of the street and 'House' on a porch or garage of any one of those homes. There were just enough kids to keep us happy and busy...in a day when you just reported home at dusk and nobody worried where their kids were...great times.

My Grandpa Moore and his Family 1875-1967

This picture is my Grandpa Moore and me in front of his house in Springfield, Missouri.

Grandpa was always really loving to me and kind. I was pretty lucky to have so many grandparents growing up, really. Grandpa was Daddy Roy's Dad. I never met my Grandma Moore, (Lena Mae) as she had died during the birth of their 11th child many years before.

Grandpa was of the 'old school'...the really old school. He never left Missouri after he settled there. He never traveled anywhere, either, except to family reunions or to his sister's homes in Arcadia, Kansas. I loved going there to Aunt Lidia & Aunt Martha's homes. Aunt Lidia made gorgeous patchwork quilts, all quilted by hand, not tied. Daddy knew she didn't have much money so he would buy one of her quilts when we came, to help her out. (I gave one to my cousin Kelli, Uncle Harold's granddaughter, that she has now.) They each had wonderful "porch swings" and they always had time to swing on them with me. Both of them also had outdoor toilets way in their back yards. In fact, I remember a very embarrassing moment one time when we were visiting Aunt Martha. I was about 5 and I needed to use the bathroom. I noticed she had a shiny, brand new toilet right there in her dining room! What a find! I just sat myself down and away I 'went'. Uh oh...no toilet paper...I called for my mom and it was then that I got the news...it wasn't connected yet and that WASN'T the bathroom...Mom was horrified...Me too! Aunt Martha just got a rag and cleaned it up laughing all the time. Mom tried to help her but she just acted like it was 'no big deal', but I never forgot it, believe me.

What a great little town Arcadia was. It looked like something out of the "Sweet Tomatoes" movie. We had many 'feasts' at Aunt Lidia's house with the Arcadia relatives. No one could cook like those Moore girls! Always, and I mean always, we would have cobblers to die for...blackberry, apple, strawberry, and peach with vanilla homemade ice cream on top. They would have tons of fresh, right out of the garden, huge perfect sliced tomatoes and just picked corn on the cob that almost didn't need any butter or salt & pepper...at every gathering we ever had. They knew how to cook for a crowd. They always had a house dress on and a cute old fashioned apron. Their hair was always the same, almost white and done up in a bun on the top of their heads. Laughing and telling stories were always a part of their lives there. The grown ups would congregate to do the dishes & clean-up after dinner and the kids would go play in the fields next to the house.

I remember Dad decided to take Grandpa Moore home with us after a reunion one year. He actually took the trip pretty well...but he seemed very confused to me. He would dose off in the car and every time we would come into a town, he'd raise up and say, "Hey, what CAMP is this???" As a child that was something that sounded a little foreign... Daddy just would tell him the name of the town and Grandpa would talk about how much things had changed from 'before'. "You'd never recognize the place" he'd say. "My, how things change...." Then he'd stare out the window for awhile, examining the town asking a question here and there and remarking again and again how things had changed. He was so interested in everything there was. Then, as we would leave the town he would drift off to sleep until the next.

Through the years, I heard that Grandpa was a tough Dad. I always looked at him and found that hard to believe. My thoughts on that are that every generation probably could say, that the one before was tough on them...and even site examples of the toughness and raise an eyebrow or two. But the truth is that discipline has de-celerated over the years to the point that no one is allowed to do much without a child getting a child abuse suit on them or, even as bad or worse, a divorce from their parents. In that and many other valuable ways Grandpa, things in this world really have changed, and I can see now what you were talking about then, more than ever.

Daddy "Brady" 1899-1979

Okay, this could be hard. I'm going to relay the history that I remember Mother, Grandma McClain & Grandma Brady told me. I have very mixed feelings about the whole thing, really, but also I did love my Dad and he was good to me even if it took him years to be good to Mother.
I guess that's how it is when you finally grow up and understand that people do things that change the whole course of their lives because of a single act...or a habit, brought about by the first single act.

I probably need to start with the hard part. Daddy 'Brady' was a product of a split marriage. When Grandma Brady & Grandpa McClain got divorced, Dad went to live with his Dad and his step-mother. He wasn't very old then, about 12. He didn't get along with Ethel very well and eventually ran away from home to join the circus. His dad & Ethel had a little baby boy, Milton. The way I heard it from Mother, Milton turned out to be a very handsome young man. He was quite tall with black hair, piercing blue eyes and a winning personality. Daddy never liked him and resented him terribly. Daddy took on his step-father's name "Brady" to spite his dad and never had much to do with either set of his parents or families after he left home.

He eventually learned to play several instruments but really liked the Saxophone. He started a band and actually did quite well with it. He had that going for him for many years.

When WWII broke out he joined the Army and went to war. He actually earned a Purple Heart in that war. I never heard any stories about his time in the services, but that wasn't uncommon for many of the young men who served in that war. It was just too painful to talk about. Mother said that when he came home he started to drink. I'm not real clear on how they met but I just know it was somewhere in Santa Cruz. Mother had Larry who needed a father figure, but I don't think she knew what she was getting into when she married my Dad. "Brady" eventually bought The Yacht Club in Santa Cruz, at the Harbor. He had quite a bunch of friends there. They would play poker, and sometimes gamble for pretty high stakes. Mother tells of a time where he gambled away the family car one night. He did have some serious vices. He became an alcoholic, and that was the one that seemed to do the most harm to everyone.

Evidently, when he came home from the war and Milton was still out to sea in the Navy. Mom & Dad had been married about 4 years when Mother was about to deliver me. Her sister-in-law, Milton's wife, came to tell them that Milton had been burned to death on the "Nashville" ship while he was taking care of a patient. She was emotionally lost and found refuge in their home. By then, they had Larry & Darlene. Mother always was willing to take people in and feeling the heart-ache of this young woman, she welcomed her and invited her to stay as long as she needed to.

The true heart-ache came when Larry reported that he was locked out of the only bathroom in the house because he had to go through the master bedroom to get to it. While Mother was in the hospital having her baby, Daddy was 'consoling' his sister-in-law, Virginia. Mother gave him a year to decide what he wanted to do. He chose Virginia. Maybe it was the war, maybe it was because he could finally get back at Milton by taking his wife...I guess we'll never know. I met her on several occasions growing up and Mother was, by far, the most beautiful and alive between the two. My Dad & Virginia were basically drunk nearly any time you saw them. I remember one time when he came to visit us and he hit mother. I realized then, that he had made the right choice after all.

I vaguely remember Virgina passing away when I was in elementary school. He had a few years of dating some pretty big fluzzies. I remember being so happy when I met "Pan". She was a classy lady who really seemed to love him. She took care of him until he died when he was 80. There's stories here that I don't need to share, but let it suffice, he was a very lucky and blessed man to have Pan. She was a Princess in my book.

Dad would often say when I was in college and come to visit that "Your Mother wasn't ALWAYS a Mormon, ya know!" That would somehow make me mad, but I didn't think that was any of my business, so I never questioned him as to why he would make a statement like that...after all, neither was I.

One lesson I will never forget that he did teach me, when I was a teenager. I was having a rough time getting along with Mom and decided it would be a great idea if I could just go live with him and Pan and not have to have someone watching me day and night to follow "the rules". I knew that my Dad was an alcoholic and when I stayed there he really didn't watch what I did, he just let me hang out with my friends. He didn't care what time I came in or anything. He would hand me $20 and tell me to have a good time. Sometimes he would say, "Here's the keys to my yacht, take your friends for a ride!" Although I was scared to death of that huge boat, the idea of that kind of freedom can look pretty appealing to a teenager, and I fell into that category quite readily. I really liked "Pan" and she was gone all week to 'the city' (San Francisco) working at a big department store and was only home on the weekend. That also sounded good to me.
I just knew he'd be okay with it. When I told him my plan he sat me down for the first 'Father Daughter' talk I'd ever had or ever would have with him. He was even sober for this one. He said, "You know Sheri, your Mom and I haven't always seen eye to eye. We've spent a whole lot of years mad at each other over one thing or another. I wasn't a good father for you, but your mother has done a good job. We have finally got a good relationship and I'm not going to let you drive a wedge in it with this. You are going to have to know that IF you decide to come and live with us, you can. But, neither Nellie or I are going to let you flit back and forth whenever you get mad at one of us. You are going to have to decide where you're going to be and stick with it. So, what's it gunna be?" -----Wow! I was shocked! But somehow it made me feel really secure; like I had parents that loved me and wanted me to do a solid thing...to be grounded in a decision and stick to it...to take responsibility. It really made me proud of him. He was willing to take me in. I decided I was in the best place for me over-all, and I never regretted it. Mom was the one I wanted to be with. She only was hard on me because she knew I needed rules to survive in this world, and this was the time in my life that I needed them most.

Ernie

Ernie came to live with us when he was a senior in High School. He was Daddy Roy's nephew and needed a place to stay. Mom and Dad always found room for relatives in need of help and I'm glad this wasn't an exception. Larry had gone to Germany by the time he came, so Darlene and I welcomed a new "big brother." He would take us to get a chocolate malt at Foster Freeze, buy us Lanz dresses, he'd take us with him to the show. He was wonderful. Ernie was quickly very popular at school as he became a star "Tackle" on their football team. He worked on the side, learning the plumber trade, from my Dad. Ernie had a great sense of humor and loved a good joke. We loved just being around him and hearing anything he wanted to share about his friends or his day. Lots of things happened during his stay with us; we got news of Larry's death, my really good friend was hit by a car on his bike on the frontage road, by our house, and killed, Grandpa Koehler died, and my little Chihuahua was run over. Through it all, he was always someone gentle to lean on, always loving and respectful. I really don't think he ever realized how much we learned to love him and depend on him while he was living with us. I just remember how 'safe' he always made me feel.

Ernie went home to visit and soon married Rosie. I remember going to see them after many years, just before I got married. They had a house full of happy kids and they all seemed to get a kick out of each other. I loved seeing them all together. They encouraged one another to do something cute, then would just laugh and point out that someone had done something amazing. It was the cutest thing.

Again, lots of time went by and we heard about a family reunion for the Moores. By this time, Norm & I had 6 kids and a motor home so it would be manageable. We packed up and took the gang to Missouri and had a great time getting to know Ernie's, now, grown up family. What a great sense of humor and personalities he and Rosie had passed on to their kids. How much fun we had at that reunion. They lived by a lake next to Aunt Midge & Uncle Don, and Barbara & Roy. We had great food, great fun at the lake and wonderful memories to take back with us. We became acquainted with Ernie & Rosie's girls, Lisa, Gina & Sheila. We somehow really connected with Lisa and it wasn't very long before we received a phone call from her, wanting to come live with us for a time. We were so happy to have her with us. We all had a great time with her, and she eventually went to live in Scottsdale with a friend.

We recieved a call a few years later that Ernie had had a heart attack and had died... in the same hospital where he and Rosie worked. It was a tough thing to hear and I was very glad for the years we as a family had with him and the fun he brought into our lives.

In the beginning...

This is one of the very few pictures taken of me when I was a baby. Because it was the "Depression", no one had a lot of money so pictures and "extras" were carefully chosen.
This was taken when I was 6 months old and I didn't have other professional pictures taken until I was about 2 years old. Mother eventually had the beauty parlor in Palo Alto which took her and Grandma Koehler through that period of time very well. Women still had their hair done even if they didn't have new clothes or other extras. Mother always had food on the table because of it. She had 3 children to provide for and did a very good job of it. Below is my "War Rations Book" she received right after I was born. It still has lots of stamps left in it and it's pretty interesting to look at. The next is the paper with the news of my birth...I really didn't weigh what they said. The accurate one is the pink slip (below) that was with me in the hospital.

This is a copy of my formula that was given to Mother to give me when I came home from the hospital. "one can of evaporated milk, boiled water, Karo syrup, & salt!!" Wow! - THEN... it's interesting that on the back of the formula "at one month an egg yolk may be added to formula 1/2 teaspoon at a time until every day the baby would have an egg yolk."
Because I was born on Valentines Day, the nurses brought me into Mother with this little heart pinned on my diaper just after I was born.

Grandpa Alvin B. Koehler 1875-1961

Grandpa Koehler (Grandma Evie Koehler's husband - Nellie's (Grandma "Beep" or Moore)father.

Grandpa Koehler was a really big part of my life when I was a little girl...especially when he was the only grandparent who lived very close by at first. He and Grandma Koehler got divorced but remained really good friends. I'm not sure when that happened but it could have been when I was maybe 6 or 7. I just remember everyone in the family or close friends talking about how neat it was that they had managed to be such good friends and then later in life be able to go back and live together for so many years after they got their divorce. Grandma lived in Phoenix in the winter sometimes and Yreka for many years. But eventually ended up in the Bay Area where we were, either with us or alone at Mother's "Court" (a square city block in Mountain View, California)until she and Grandpa decided two could live cheaper than one...together. For some reason it worked for them and I never questioned their lifestyle or decision to do that.

The tale of how Grandma & Grandpa got married was always a story that I got a kick out of as a child. The story goes that Grandma was engaged to be married "to another fella". The day before her wedding day she was home making the cake and Grandpa came to call on her. They were visiting in the kitchen about her choice to marry this guy, when my Grandpa said boldly, "If I'da known you were in the mood to be married, I'da asked you m'self!"... to which she replied, "Well, what's keepin' ya?" They eloped!

Early in their marriage, Grandma & Grandpa Koehler had a farm. They had many crop failures and disappointments because of severe weather changes in South Dakota. They moved out west because of that; first they moved to Montana... after crop failure there, to Oregon, then California. There they owned a general store/ Millnery Store where Grandma sold hats she made herself and in another part of the store was Grandpa's barber shop.

I remember one story that Grandma Koehler told about Grandpa's hair. She said he always had a wonderful head of thick curly dark hair. He decided to surprise Grandma one day and came home and knocked on the door. When Grandma opened the door, there stood Grandpa. He had completely shaved his head! She was so mad at him. She said it would never come in as beautiful as it was before. As a matter of fact, it never did come back at all. Because he worked so much in the sun, his head kept getting sunburned and nothing would grow there after that...believe me...Grandma was pretty much always right!

Grandpa was a barber for many years. I still have some of his barber tools in my possession; straight edge razor, scissors, lather brush & bowl etc. and I even use his scissors when I cut Norm's or Kevin's hair.

Above is a picture of the house Grandpa grew up in. It is where all the children were born and where even Great Grandma & Great Grandpa Koehler passed away.

On the left is a picture of Grandpa's Mother, Wilhelmina (Huenkemier) and below is a picture of Grandpa Koehler's Dad, Jakob Bernard Koehler.

I really don't remember hearing much about them. I just know that they had a big family and Mother didn't know them very well because they lived back east and people didn't travel very much in those days. When they had to go by horse and buggy or train everywhere they went and with Grandpa moving out west, it made things pretty hard to see relatives who didn't live next door, unless you had money.

My biggest memory I have of Grandpa was that he loved to play Canasta. I was instructed never to beat him. I learned my lesson about that when I actually DID beat him and I saw my Grandpa lose his temper. Pretty competitive ol' boy!

There was a time when Grandpa went to a potluck/dance. When it came time to move the chairs back this lady refused to move, so Grandpa picked her up, chair and all and moved her to the side. He damaged his back and came to live with us for a time while it healed...so...it was; Grandma K., Grandma Brady, and Grandpa! He enjoyed having everyone wait on him because he was basically "bedridden" or so he claimed. But one day, when everyone appeared to be gone, I heard Grandpa spring out of bed and go call one of his girlfriends. That day, Mom took him back home. The following morning she got a call from Grandpa, "Hey! Where's my breakfast???!!!" Mom told him "The Jig's UP Daddy!" He was kinda mad at me for "turning him in" but finally got over it. He loved a good joke, his laugh was great and he was a wonderful cook. He did smoke pretty heavy and died of cancer eventually because of it. We all missed him. He wouldn't let us visit him once he got really sick. He didn't want us to remember him that way. I really didn't understand why ...Mom said he just loved us too much to put us through it, so we just sent letters back and forth. I think it was harder that way.

Gramma Beep's Recipes

Grandma Beep's Grapefruit Salad

Combine 1/2 head of lettuce with equal portions of desired amounts of avacado & grapefruit in a salad bowl. Mix with the following dressing in a cruet:

1 inch Chili Sauce (the kind you use with shrimp)

1/2 inch Canola Oil (or Veg. Oil)

2 Tablespoons Sugar

A couple of pinches o Season Salt & Season Pepper

*Cover and shake to mix well and pour over salad...YUM...MEEE!!!

Grandma Koehler, a great lady 1874-1973

Years ago I was asked to talk at a youth conference about my experience with the elderly in my home and what I might be able to pass on to them because of it. I’ve lived on both sides of the fence…as a child and then a teenager with grandmothers living with our family, and as a daughter taking care of my mother in her last years. In this blog I will just talk about Grandma Koehler. She was a big part of my life and actually still is because of her influence in my life. I always had a really different idea of what it meant to grow older. I always looked forward to it as a really fun time.. When I was in the 6th grade my Grandma Koehler came to live with us just after my brother died. My grandmother and I didn’t get along at first, but little by little, she became my favorite, and I became hers. I'm going to share with you some things we did together and the rewards that came from it.

When my Grandma first moved in I suddenly had 2 mothers. She wasn’t frail or anything like that – she was powerful and manipulating. She was TOUGH to live with! She caught me doing things she thought were wrong all the time and 'turned me in' to my parents. I felt like I was in trouble all the time. What my parents didn’t see, she did…it was Awful! She was NO fun at all…she was all business. She was about 82 then. As fierce as she seemed, I still liked her and every time I got a chance I would let her know in some way. I noticed her starting to soften. One weekend I had a sleep over with about 15 girls. We decided to do some “prank” calling. GRANDMA helped us! She was so fun! My friends absolutely adored her…After that night, every time they came over they went straight for her. She told funny stories and they loved them. One of the best lessons I learned from my Grandmother, was that smiling made you beautiful. One of her favorite things to say as she got older was, “People tell me I’m beautiful, I tell them, “I know it, I make myself that way by smilin’!” When I was in that accident when I was 13. The one where I went through the windshield and ended up with all those stitches in my face. She made sure that I knew that "no one would notice those scars as long as I was smiling." She convinced me that they absolutely didn’t even show if I was smiling…so I did. When she was about 84 she joined the church and she spent a lot of nights up reading. She was always available to talk if I wanted and we loved the time we spent together. She became my best friend. Older people, (I mean REALLY older) have so much wisdom and vision. She was no exception. She was no ordinary woman for her age. Grandma was able to work in the yard and climb stairs. She could walk completely without any help…in fact, she could out-walk or out-work any one in the family at that time of her life.

I remember her going on trips with us. She would start out in the front seat and when she got tired she would climb over the seat and lay down in the back seat. She would take a nap, then climb back over the seat and go on with the trip all while we were traveling along. She was like one of the kids. I was in total awe of her. In fact, one summer, I decided to have her come and be my roommate at BYU. I lived off campus with 2 other girls and needed another roommate. It seemed logical to have her come. What a summer we had…She was game for anything. There was a friend of mine that was around 26 and wasn’t married yet. We used to tease him about it and towards the end of the regular school year he made a comment that I needed to set him up with one of my roommates sometime. SOOOO…. I told him about this one that was coming for the summer from California. She had been raised on a farm just like him…she was little and petite, with a great sense of humor. He was pretty excited… The time came when we arranged for him to go out with her on a blind date. He got there and said, “Well, where is she?” I assured him that she would be right out - that she was “primping”…A few moments later she opened the door in a wide motion and entered the room enthusiastically with a huge smile! She immediately sized up the situation and looked the guy in the eye and inquired without hesitation, “Are you mah’blind date?” He looked around for a second and said right back, “I guess I am!”…she snapped back, “You’re JUST what I wanted!” He took her arm and started for the door…paused for a reply over his shoulder, and said, “You may think you’ve pulled a trick on me, but she’s just what I’ve been looking for ALL my life!”

He was wonderful to her. He came over a couple of times a week, took her to ice cream, bowling, movies…she’d sit right next to him in his car and everybody loved it. It was clear that he knew how to make the best of things and make her feel important. It could have been a bad experience all the way around, but it turned out so fun for her and everyone. We took her on camping trips with my friends and someone always made sure she had her rocking chair to sit around the campfire at night. It was amazing. With a Grandmother like her, I was never afraid of growing old. Why should I have been? She was a great inspiration to us all and I will always be grateful that she was there for me so much of my life.

Grandma Koehler Newspaper Article and Early Pictures

This picture looks like Darlene through the eyes and side of her face.

I found these articles about Grandma Koehler (Nellie's Mother). On her 96th Birthday, I took her to Flood Park with the Palo Alto Times editor and he took pictures of her to use in this article about the "Swinging Grandmother". Kinda fun to have this information for the Grandkids. She was a very fun Grandma!

Click on the article above and you will be able to read it.

The love of my life

We met at a church dance in Scottsdale, but that isn't where our story begins. While I was at college in Hawaii, Darlene was on her mission in Chile. In writing back and forth during that time, she wrote and said she had found "just the boy for me!" His name was Norm ____. Now, Darlene and I have really never had the same taste in boys, so I dismissed and forgot the whole thing. Then when I was on MY mission Mother wrote to me after going to a wedding reception in Sacramento where Norm was the "Best Man", and said SHE had met "just the boy for me"... and his name was Norm _____. There again, "mothers don't have any idea what their daughters would want in a boy...," and I already had forgotten Darlene's letter, so I dismissed that as well.

About a year went by and I came home from my mission and went to BYU for a semester. At Christmas time Mom, Dad and I went down to stay with Darlene & Bob for a few days. I got a little "antsy" so I checked to see if the Church Institute had any activities going on during the holidays there. I found out about noon that there was a Luau in Scottsdale for all the college age kids that night...but I had nothing to wear. I bought some material and sewed the rest of the day and managed to come up with a dress to wear...sewing myself out the door...arriving at 10:30 pm at the dance. This guy came up and asked me to dance. Right away he said, "You look really familiar". "Oh boy here we go...what a line!" was my only thought. We danced for awhile and found out that he had been on a mission to Chile at the same time as Darlene and Bob and he knew them. That was nice. I also learned that he was now stationed in Monterrey, California in the Army and was home on leave staying with his brother in Phoenix. Mind you, he was in "Boot Camp" and his head was completely shaved, no kidding, and it wasn't the style at all, but he had the most wonderful smile and eyes. I told him that I would be coming home to work at semester and would be in California in January. He took my address & phone number and he said he would write to me and we'd get together sometime in California. That was that.

When I got home that night after the dance, Darlene and Mom wanted to know all about the dance. "Did you have a good time"... "Yes." I said ... "Did you meet anybody new?" ... "Yes. I met someone who knew Darlene and Bob in the missionfield..." "Really, WHO?" Darlene asked. "...a Norm ____" "No KIDDING!" they both said in unison, "THAT'S the ONE!!!" ... "WHAT one??" I asked. "The one I wrote to you about!" they both said in unison. They both looked at each other and couldn't believe they had both written about the same boy. By the same token, I couldn't believe that this was the boy. He was nice and all, but not THE ONE. I was sure of it.

As planned I came home at semester and since I had relatives who lived in Monterrey, Mom and I went up to spend the weekend with them the end of January. I knew some guys who were stationed at Fort Ord so I contacted one of them and he told me the church was having a huge Singles Conference there that weekend. He asked me to go and he came by an hour later to pick me up. We hadn't been there long when I asked him if he knew Norm ____. He said he did and "...there he is right there..." He pointed to a doorway where Norm was leaning. There he was. I was shocked. By then his hair was grown out, and he was quite a different guy all around...HOT! I excused myself and went over to him and asked if he remembered meeting me. He told me that he did, and that he was planning on writing to me that weekend. (Oh yeah...and I remember this guy's got a line for everything...ha) We danced a few dances and had a really good time. I went back to my friend who brought me to the dance and finished out the night with him and he took me back to my cousin's house.

As promised, I received a letter on Monday. Darlene and Bob were coming to town in a couple of weeks and we planned a BBQ in a park near our house and invited Norm down for that weekend. We also contacted the couple where he was the best man to come too. It was such a great weekend. Wonderful actually. As I was setting up everything in the morning, a song came on the radio I never had heard before..."Come Saturday morning......and we will remember long after Saturday's gone". It was so perfect. When he came and we were finishing everything up it was playing again and he seemed to know the words. It was a fun weekend. By Sunday, we went over to Stanford University Chapel and we were holding hands walking around reading sayings on the wall ending up walking back down the center isle, somebody asked us if we were getting married, Norm answered, "No, ...just practicing..."

That was the beginning...A year later all that practicing paid off. We were married in the Mesa Temple and a year after that, Kevin was born...and now you know..."the rest of the story."

Just looking at her innocent face in this picture, brings back a flood of memories from our childhood. There are many words and descriptions I think of when I think of Darlene, but the ones that stand out most in my mind are; without guile, would never intentionally hurt anyone, helpful, scatter-brained, intelligent, knowledgable music teacher, ukelele, sometimes illogical, very loving, forgiving, sees the good in everyone, determined, funny, great pies.

As a child I saw her as a great artist, with a great imagination. She was also a real organizer of closets, putting labels across the rod where we would put skirts - blouses - dresses in certain taped off areas. If she knew we had company coming, she would race to her closet and start cleaning like mad, making sure all her shoes were lined up and everything in her drawers were absolutely perfect. Mom would always get so mad and tell her that the whole house needed vacuum-ing and dishes done etc., but she wouldn't stop until she was sure everything was perfect there.

Darlene loved to read. It was a daily occurance to see her walking the mile to school reading a book the whole way, never once looking up as she walked. It's a miracle she was never hit by a car. I know the Lord had to be watching over her! She was an excellent student. She had many good friends who got together at lunch to study the scriptures. They were also either in the band with her, Acapella Choir, or Honor Choir. I always envied her ability to read music. I never could do that. We were both fortunate to have Larry for our brother. He taught us both to play the Uke which has given us years of musical enjoyment. Mother always made sure that we had the oppotunity to play any instrument we truly wanted to. Darlene chose to play several instruments; accordion, piano, clarinet, and then learned a ton of others while in college majoring in music.

Darlene wasn't afraid to try new things and always seem to learn fast. She took acrobatics and learned how to do a back-bend. I never could, as many times as I tried. She learned to swim, and I still struggle. When she wants to learn something or do something, she will be so determined that absolutely nothing will stop her. I admire that about her. It drove me crazy as a child, but I've come to really appreciate it in her as an adult.

She loves her kids and has perfect faith in them. This is a truism. No matter what, she will stand by them and believe in them and their friends. By doing this faithfully, I believe they wouldn't want to disappoint her in the end. I've watched them, one by one, become all that she had ever hoped for, and more. They all have an enviable closeness together. I love to go wherever they are. When they hug Darlene, anyone can see the love they have for her. She is a precious human being.

In the past, I haven't always understood her but I've always loved her. Like sisters do, from time to time, we have had 'our moments'. Lately however, I look forward to our phone conversations and the laughs we have over silly things...it's really been a special time of my day, our little talks.

As I remember things I will add more about our childhood.