A GREAT MASS GENERAL HOSPITAL STORY

Dear Family,

Before I write about Christmas, I will share this tory I received from one of my Classmates at Harvard Med School concerning an incident from my days at the Massachusetts General Hospital years ago. This was a note sent out by the MGH to its present and former staffers.

It i s long but I think you will enjoy reading it if you can stick it out.

From Broadcast MGH

sent 12/24/2010 subject Holiday Message from Peter L. Slavin M.D.

"At the dawn of the 200th anniversary of the founding of our Hospital, I thought it fitting to share with you a letter I received recently that shows the powerful and abiding impact the MGH can have on the lives of patients and families who pass through our doors. This note came from the wife of a gentleman whose life was saved more than 40 years ago by the swift action of a doctor, a nurse and a dedicated and skilled team of MGH caregivers. With the letter was a copy of a newspaper article from 1969 which I have condensed and included."

"Dear Sir,

Enclosed is an article that was printed in the Boston Record American newspaper some 40 years ago about my Husband, Edward, and I just wanted to thank the staff for all they did to keep him alive, and out of interest let you know he is now father to four and grandpa to 8.

If your staff had not been so dedicated I would not have my wonderful husband who has praised your hospital and had told me of his accident and about the care he was given many times. But I only just found the article while looking through his papers for our passport, and wanted to write and thank you. I know it was 40 years ago, but that only shows the dedication and care, as there wasn't the equipment and resources that are now available. Thank you one and all

Pat and Edward Blake"

(Excerpts from the Boston Record American, Oct. 25, 1969)

Mass General Has its Liviest Corpse, Patient who Perished in Car Crash in Miracle Comeback

The incredible story of the liveliest - and luckiest "dead man" in Boston was disclosed Friday at the Mass General Hospital. His name is Edward Blake,24, an English Engineer who "died" ten days ago when the car he was driving hit the corner of a building on Pinkney Street. But he is alive now and itching to get our of the hospital. only because he had the good fortune to have a doctor and a nurse happen by an instant after the accident and because they ad the tremendous amount of help from the emergency room personnel at the Mass General.

Blake's story began at 2:30 AM, Oct. 14 when he was pinned in the car after smashing into the Building. Dr. Robert Figman, 27, a former surgical resident at the MAss. General saw the crash and ran to Blake's aid. Tricia Curran, a nurse who lives int he neighborhood, was driving by in her car and stopped to help. Blake was unconscious. Neither a heart beat, breath or pulse could be detected. He was placed on the street and while Figman gave cardiac massage, Miss Curran used mouth to mouth respiration and after a while they seceded in getting a slight pulse and breathing from him.

Dr. Le Roy Wirthlin and a team of six doctors and nurses took up where Dr. Figman and Miss Curran left off, and the discovered that the blood supply to Blake's brain was choked off by the pressure from the rib cage in the heart area. Once the pressure was relieved, the blood began to flow freely again , but the fear was that he had suffered irreparable brain damage.

But three days later, Blake began to stir from the coma, and finally he came out of it entirely and made an amazing progress toward recovery. Doctors could detect no brain damage whatever, and so remarkable was his case considered that he was introduced to all the staff and student doctors.

" I feel great and I'll be forever thankful to Dr. Figman, Miss Curran, Dr. Wirthlin and all the others who helped save me. I know I'm lucky to be around."

The relentless drive to do whatever it takes to help those in need has long defined Mass. General. For two centuries, the men and women who created, shaped, nurtured and advanced this hospital infused it with a spirit that is felt throughout the hospital- from the original Bullfinch Building to the forthcoming Lunder Building. I extend my deepest gratitude to each and every member of the MGH family for the inspiring work you do every day and for the lasting impact you have on our patients and families. Have a Happy and healthy holiday season. i look forward to celebrating our bicentennial with you in 2011. Peter L. Slavin, M.D. "

For the rest of the story, Dr. Figman was walking his dog on Beacn Hill when this all happened and the nurse happened to be an ICU nurse. When they brought him in, they woke me up and I ran down there. As Chief Resident, i used to sleep in the hosital on the days we covered the rather busy emergency ward. I thing we figured out he had a tension pneumothorax (and that was without a CAT scan) and I put is a chest tube. Those were exciting days.

Love, Dad

GETTING OUT THE CHRISTMAS CARD

Well we did it! We sent out our Christmas card this year before Christmas. We took the family reunion picture from the 50th wedding celebration as the inside picture. We had everyone there except for Madeline B. who was in Kenya with a high school service group. We Photoshopped her in, see if you can find her in the picture!

Bryan came up with another great family Cartoon for the cover. He does such a great job almost every year.

This is the production of the year! We still send out 1000 cards! When I was in active surgical practice it used to be 1800. Nobody ever gets off our list by intention even if they pass away!

I used to keep the list and then Mom started to keep a list and the two databases did not jibe. It is so hard to keep track of friends and it has been impossible to keep track of our over 400 missionaries who have scattered all over the globe. It is a bit like trying to herd cats.

Cathy our official IT expert and Becca our CPA got together to try and merge our two lists, deleted all the duplicates and came out with a working list. We then printed all the labels. Then when we had the list, the design and the photograph we got Paul Hatch an d his printing group to do the final printing of the envelopes, printing and folding the cards. It was a big job.

I took care of sending out the European cards and then Mom organized the stamping stuffing, licking the envelopes and stacking chores. Emily came up with some of her kids, there were some of Mike's and Cheryl's
Here are Caroline, Camille, Emily in the back, Annabelle, Natalie, Madeline B. and Emma. We even had Emily Eva 5, lick and carefully put on the stamps. It was such a great and organized effort.

Finally Mom and two of the girls drove to the post office where there were long lines. Some lady said, "Please tell me that all these cards are from a business or charity!" Earlier Mom took the European cards over and there were long lines. A random postal workers whom we do not know saw mom and shouted, "This lady has the best card!" Somehow she must have seen one somewhere. Mom had to stop and open a card to show all the other [postal workers who "Ohhed and Aaahed" while plenty of others were waiting.

When they got back, I cooked 30 perfect Crepes and the Nutella, bananas and whip cream came out till all were very happy. We appreciate the family effort that went into getting out card in the mail.

Mom also got out all the German figures we bought at Kaethi Wohlfart and in Bertchesgaden. The Rauechermaechen are ready so Santa.. look out.

Can't wait for Christmas.. it is such a great time of the year.

Love, Mom and Dad

SUNDAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Dear Family,

This has been a great season and we are getting ready for Christmas.

The wards here seem to have a little leeway as they schedule interesting things.

Last Sunday we heard the the neighboring Stake was having a special stake conference with Elder Oaks in attendance. It is very unusual to have conference now with a visiting Apostle. The rumors were running rife that that stake was picked for a special test project. Boy that is something I wanted to hear.

Since our back yard is the ssouthern boundary of that stake, we decided to go with my cousin, Dave Wirthlin and his wife Anne. It was held in or meeting house down the street. We left a half hour early to get a seat.

Turns out it was a regular conference without the Saturday meetings. The place was packed. There was no mention of new programs (the rumors really spread in Salt Lake). It was a great conference and Elder Oaks inspired everyone. The entire meeting was super.

That afternoon we went over to Cheryl's for her early Christmas dinner as they were leaving town. We had been over there the night before for her annual Fondue party and that was yummy. Here is a picture of Paul, Annabelle, Olivia, Emily, Paul Jr. and Loren digging in the Fondue.
On Sunday they did their turkey dinner and I brined a natural turkey in an Apple brine and smoked it for the occasion. Cheryl did a turkey as well. Lots of really good food then and it was great to be with them.

Following the dinner, Cheryl and Paul did their nativity celebration with Opa reading out of Luke chapter 2.

Here are the players and it went pretty well. This is a tradition still in our home on Christmas eve. In the past it got to be quite a production with music, costumes and off course all our many players.

There used to be some disagreement about the costumes. Once the angles got into a fight and Douglas as a young boy bent the halo another angel was wearing. We always had lots of sheep and Shepards and there was always a live baby!

After this, Mom and I hurried down to our Singles Stake as they were putting on a special musical evening. The Taylorsville Institute choir did a terrific job. There was a speaker who talked about the details of Handel's Messiah and the choir sang some of the pieces and we all joined in for the Hallelujah Chorus. It was such a great Sunday.

Today was also great. Elder Ballard who used to live in or ward comes each Christmas and does the program. There were three wards there and it was packed. I'll bet there were 2000 there with the entire rec hall filled. Cheryl and her kids came with us and we took a row.

Elder Ballard does sch a great job. He gave remarks interspersed with musical numbers that he organized. His remarks about the Savior were stirring and we are always uplifted. We took Cheryl to the airport. The past two Sundays were just wonderful!

Next Family Deal will be Christmas Eve with our dinner at our house and Nativity presentation. Almost all here in Utah will come and Rick, Gemina and Madeline will be there also. Rick, Gemina and Madeline will be with us Christmas morning and maybe we will go around and visit all the families afterward.

Bis Dann, Oma and Opa

HOLLIDAY MONTH IS HERE

Dear Family,

December is here, the Xmas trees are going up and all seem to be in a Holiday mode well ind advance of Christmas Day. Mom created an unusual Advent Calender for all the families; hope you got yours.

Cheryl and Paul gave us an early Xmas present by sending us two tickets to the Valley West Ballet Company's performance of the Nutcracker Ballet. The seats were the best ever, second row in front of the orchestra pit and so close to everything.

This is a yearly tradition as four of Cheryl's daughters are in the ballet performance. Madeline was one of the servants who brought in the cake, bright smiling and graceful. Annabelle was one of the soldiers and was beating a drum. Mary Clare and Loren were part of the Buffoon kids who come out under the big skirt and they did perfect cartwheels across the stage. They were smiling and happy and so energetic. I have never enjoyed the performance as much as I did this year. The Ballerinas were great but I am never sure about the guys jumping around in tights.

Here are Oma and Opa and the Performers in front of the giant Nutcracker.

Before the Ballet, we usually get a little dinner at Sigfrieds next door; with Schnitzel und Gurkensalat or a Wurst or two mit Kartofelsalat. While we were there, this young man comes up to me and starts speaking in German. It was the son of my Counselor, Lutz Herber from Augsburg, Germany. His son is here on an internship at Franklin Covy. It is such a small world in th Church and we had a rowsing good chat before we ran to the Capital Theater.


Our Tree is up, the family presents have been sent and we are trying to get our Xmas card out. We went to Cathy and Pete's house after Thanksgiving. Here is a picture of their tree in the front room. They are extremely festive and have at least eight Christmas trees decorated in their home and a ton more decorated outside. Macy's window in New York City has nothing on Cathy and Pete!

They have their outside trees decorated with many strands of varied color lights and the whole thing is organized with a computer to go on and off to syncopated Christmas music sent out through a radio transmitter from their home. It is really something.

Alles Gute,
Oma and Opa

GREAT THANKSGIVING

Dear Family,

As you know, I had a surgical procedure in my foot and have been grounded for the last four weeks so have not written much.

However, the stitches are out and I was able to celebrate one of the best Thanksgivings we have had.

We had five of our eight daughters and their families here and it was great. Present for Thanksgiving was Cheryl and Paul, Suz and Scott, Cathy and Pete, Becca and Paul and Bina and Scott with all their kids for Thanksgiving dinner. Becca, Suz and Bina and their gang stayed in our home and it rocked.

On Tuesday night, we had a secret reunion; Doug slept over to get to the airport early the next morning and Rob and Eva and their kids were stranded in Salt Lake on their way to California because of the blizzard. Here is a picture of all. It was great to see tham all; we stayed up until one in the morning visiting. Mom took them to the airport early the next morning. Eva is due in February and is doing well.

Well on Wednesday, our home turned into Iron Chef Stadium. Becca was in charge of the cooking assignments. Suz planned the 22 lb Butterball turkey. Becca made rolls and deserts. Bina made the chocolate pudding pie. I was in charge of the oyster dressing and brining and smoking a smaller turkey.

The oyster dressing is somewhat of a tradition in the Wirthlin family; it is at least 135 years old. It was quite an experience for my father who prepared the dressing the night before. I did the same and modified the recipe. Here I am putting the finishing touches on the oyster dressing. It is so good but the number of people who really like it are diminishing.

Becca made pies, rolls, sweet potatoes. Bina did the mashed potatoes. On Thursday morning, the sweet smells of a classic dinner filled the air. Everyone worked hard. Mom made pretty table decorations. For the first time, everything was prepared on time, all the sides were orchestrated to be ready with the two turkeys, the gravy was made in advance, and everything was set.

There was excitement and a lot of noise. I tried to invite people to sit down but nothing happened until I called in a firm voice, "Alle bitte Platz nehmen!" There was instant silence; Cheryl muttered, "That worked!" and we gathered for the prayer.

With family and a close friend who joined us I tried to say the Thanksgiving prayer and was so overcome with such a feeling of deep gratitude for Faith, Family and Friends, I choked but finally managed to voice of prayer of Thanksgiving.

It took 36 hours to do the smoked turkey and with three days or prparation, the meal was consumed in minutes. Here are Cheryl and daughter Madeline looking good and comfy after the dinner.

The boys took the kids to a Walt Disney movie and we gathered again in the evening for dessert. I made a New England Indian Pudding. There were pies of all kinds. Cheesecakes and goodies galore. It was a great time!

Well when it was all over, the left overs were organized, everything was cleaned up and it was the most organzed Thanksgiving dinner and We were so happy.

The next morning, the gals were off at 5:00 AM to hit the early sales and get a start on Xmas shopping. The guys and I went to a Cabelas early morning door opener and had a good time and went to a second one the next day.

Then it was time for all to beat the next blizzard and drive home. What a great Thanksgiving and how grateful we are for the blessings of Heaven.

We love you all, Mom and Dad

FULL WEEK, BACK IN THE SADDLE

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Dear Family,

Well we are back io our schedule. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are full with Church activities in the Missionary Department on Monday and the in the Temple Tuesday and Wednesday.


Thursday,went with Rebecca and her kids and met Cathy and her kids and had an outing at Sam's Club where they stocked up on food items. We then went to Gygi's and the gals picked up more cooking supplies. In the afternoon, Cathy came over to fix Mom's computer. Here is a shot of Cathy at the computer with daughter Lilly and we wonder why her email address contains the word "Wackycathy". She is a whiz on that computer.

Friday, we watched Becca's kids when she went for her followup ultrasound


and everything was OK. We went to Red Robin for lunch. That evening we had our dinner and theater date. We went with our group to the Hale Theater to see The Drowsy Chaperone which was a rousing musical set in the '20s. Her is her picture.

Saturday was the game at the U of U. They played Colorado State and beat them 58-10. It was raining and cold and we appreciated the warm box on the 50 Yard line. President Uchtdorf and his wife came into the box, said hello to Paul and turned and said hello to us. He seems to know who we are. He spoke German to us and I told him about Steffi's wedding in Freiberg. The U of U is eighth in the AP poll...not bad.

We left the game early to go to Stake Conference for our University Singles Stake. I did not have to speak but they had us stand up and review our family stats for the group. They had a good meeting. Sunday we went down for a Stake Leadership meeting from 8:30 to 9:30. At 10:00 there was a televised regional meeting with 71 stakes in attendance and it was translated into 15 languages. Elder Nelson and President Uchtdorf spoke and it was great. They made an appeal to have more missionaries serving young and old and even invited the sisters to serve if they wish.

Had two Blessings in the afternoon and in the evening, we went over to Cheryl and Paul's for their Scripture reading with the kids. They are on their best behavior during this time. Cheryl has her house all decked out for Halloween.

It is great to see family. Next event will be the baptims of Becca's Abigail and Emily's Joseph. Some of us will gather in our home for Thansksgiving and we are starting to plan.

Love you all...Dad

WE GO TO GERMANY FOR STEFFI'S WEDDING

Dear Family,

We had the best short trip to Germany. Steffi Meyne one of our sister Missionaries (from Prussia) sent me a note on Face Book that she had a wedding date in October and I thought that is the best reason to take our frequent flyer miles and go back to Germany for the first time in five years.

Stefffi was one of our great sister missionaries who was a very hard worker, disciplined, effective, great trainer and a love of the Gospel that ran very deep. She reminded a bit of my Mom who also joined the church as a young lady in Zurich Switzerland and who gave up home, country and tradition to come to the states to pursue her gemology work. Her conversion was total body and she loved the church with all her heart and spoke of it daily. We kept in touch with Steffi and were thrilled with the news.

The trip over to Berlin was easy even back in economy. When we got to the airport, there was Steffi who came to pick us up two nights before her wedding. We visited and she drove us to the hotel. There is a picture of Steffie loading us up. So great to see her again!

When Katje's mother, Marita Muench heard that we were coming, she invited us to come to Cottbus on Friday to give a Fireside on Joseph Smiths boyhood operation (the first story we have of Joseph Smith) in her ward and of course in German. I was very worried about this since it has been five years since I spoke any leg nth in German. We drove down to Cottbus on Friday in a neat little Ford four door with a peppy diesel engine and six gears ahead. I brought my Garmin GPS with an Alpine SD map card with me and it took us to the door. We had lunch with Her and the Seidels. She took us through the Spreewald where there were armies of people out gathering wild mushrooms.

Here is a picture of Mom and Marita who took us all around Cottbus, The fireside went OK. I had my fireside talk already translated in German and got someone to read off the legnthier slides. It went for about 45 minutes and I was able to answer questions.

We then drove to Hoyerswerda and stayed over night in Marita's apartment where Katje also grew up. We went to a Baeckerei for breakfast and the first bite of a Brotchen with dried meats and cheese brought back a flood of memories. Marita drove us to Dresden. She has a rather heavy foot on the accelerator and at time we were doing 110 mph.
She knew each blitzer on the way to Dresden but it was great help to have her drive.
We met with our AP Attila Heller, his wife, three kids and his father at the Frauenkirche. Dresden was leveled during the war but the Frauenkirche was built up again. It was so good to see the Hellers. We used to call him Schneller Heller; he would wait till I dozed off in the car and then pick up speed on the Autobahn. We worked together several months driving and having meetings all over the mission. Here is a picture of Papa Heller, Attila, his wife and three kids. We visited for two hours, did a horse carriage ride around the Altstadt of Dresden, went into the Frauenkirche to see its renovations. Visited, talked and just enjoyed to be with them again.


We then drove to Freiberg to meet Dario, Patricia Dzierzon and their four kids.. all boys..twins with red hair. We had one of Dario's famous Topfs and visited again. Both Dario and Patricia were our missionaries and Dario was my AP for a long time as well. They have a spacious apartment in a home owned by their family for many years. The house was built in the 1600's. Here is a picture of their street. Quick lunch and then it was over to the Temple in Freiberg; this was the first temple behind the iron curtain.

We got there for the 2:30 PM wedding and there was Steffi and her fiance, Robert Hammer. He is from a German family who have been members of the church for several generations and he once had filled a mission in California. Here is a picture of Mom, Mary Cox (also one of our missionaries who is getting a PhD at Oxford and writing her thesis in Berlin), Robert and Steffi and me in front of the temple.

The temple is of medium size, bigger than the one in Detroit. They had friends and family and I counted 26 in the room. The men stood but I had a special seat as Steffi asked me to be a witness and that was a great honor. There was a great spirit there and the Temple President, Pres. Apel performed the ceremony and it was great. Lots of pictures and then it was time to drive back to Berlin (two hours) for the wedding reception at the Tiergarten ward. Dario and Patricia rode with us back to Berlin with Dario at the wheel.


Here is a picture of Steffi and Robert doing the traditional wedding waltz. There were tons of great German finger food and a huge cake.
I visited with the Bishop of the ward and all were so very happy for Steffi and Robert. Then we got back in the car and drove two hours back to Freiberg with Mom spelling off Dario at the end. We stayed at Dario's parents home in Freiberg and got back 1 AM.

The next day was Sunday and we went to the Freiberg ward. It is a great ward and Mom and I both recognized that the members liked each other and there was such a great spirit there. It is also a strong ward with the Stake President, stake Patriarch, Temple President and Temple missionaries are members. They had the largest High Priest Quorum that I have ever seen there. Many were distinguished in their own right. The meeting were great; it was Fast Day and I got up towards the end and by then mhy German was pretty good. We loved it there.

We spent the day with Dario and Patricia and it was great. Here is a picture of them with three of their four boys. On the day this was taken, the oldest was in Vorschule. The next morning, we took a little trip to a little town near the Erzgebirge where they make all those fabulous Christmas decorations. They had the smoking men, Pyramids and nutcrackers that were life size. Cheryl would have gone nuts there.




Here is a picture of the full size nutcrackers guarding the way in. I had to control myself a lot. There was this fat little Raeuchermann with a great beard that was a Forester but they wanted 280 Euro and that cooled the enthusiasm. It was so neat to be there and it was like being in the Mother Lode of all Christmas stuff. We saw how they painstakingly put everything together.

After a super lunch there, we drove back to Berlin. We left early the next morning; the airport in Berlin was socked in so our flight to London was delayed and we missed the connection to the states. British Air was kind and put us on a flight to Chicago going Business class that was very good. We made it home and got our bags a couple days later.

It was such a great short trip and we met dear friends again and were part of Steffi's wedding which was the highlight of the trip. Going over there could be habit forming.

Alles Gute und Alles Liebe, Mom and Dad

CONFERENCE WEEKEND

Dear Family,

General Conference was great and all the activities with it were also outstanding.
We went to my missionary reunion from my mission in the 1950's. They have been meting regularly but this may be the last one. Saw the missionary i went over on the boat with and my first companion and other companions. Mom and I will probably have our mission reunion in the spring of next year.

The sessions of General Conference were terrific and Iwant to study the talks when they are printed. All sessions were terrific. You can't pick favorite talks but I did like Elder Ballards talk and counsel very much. I added the audio clip. I had been fishing with him in the past but not fly fishing. He gave a great analogy. They were all so good and uplifting with a plea to the youth to keep on the straight and narrow.

We had quite a group come up for the Priesthood broadcast in out ward house. John Hickey and his boys came as did Mike and his crew with friends and brother in laws, Doug and his boys with his brother and law and his boys. We picked up Paul H. jr and he joined us. We filled an entire row in the middle section of the chapel.

After the meeting we went home for the traditional semi annual Post Priesthood Meeting feed. We used to go to restaurants but they are so filled and the food is better at home anyway. Other people showed up a well with friends of friends and we counted 22 that came for a rib eye roast, smoked ribs, dutch oven ribs with secret ingredient that Doug brought. He also brought Kristina's banana cream pie, Emily's funeral potatoes, corn on the cob completed the meal and they completely ate an 11 pound roast and it was so good. We had a little review of the Priesthood meeting talks by the young guys and they did real well. So much fun!


Sunday we had three visits and ti was so great. Mary and Mark and their two great kids plus there new highly pedigreed German short hair hunting dog, Gunner der Jaeger came up from Alpine. They came back to run int he St. George marathon and both finished well. So neat to see Mary and her crew and we had a little lunch.

Then we had a visit from Switzerland. Pascal and Nicole Hoffman, both of them served in our mission were visiting conference. Pascal was my great Secretary and AP and we recruited his sister to fill a mini mission with Steffi Meyne in Munich. She just finished a mission on Temple Square in Salt Lake. So great to see them; they all seem like family. We had Wuerstli und Sauerbrot with Sauserkraut for lunch and talked about dating.

Then Roy's daughters, Lexie and Hanna came up from BYU and ti was so great to see them as well. They are great grand daughters and seemed to be doing so well. Mom loaded them up with food for the condo. We had such joy n that Sunday.

Well we are going to Germany on Wednesday and not spending enough time over there but what time we have will be great. I asked what we should bring Steffi and she wanted Reeses Pieces. We asked the Dzierzons what they wanted us to bring and they said, Jiff Peanut Butter with nuts. So great!

More later.. still nervous about my German Fireside. We will meet some of our German missionaries there next Sunday.

Alles gute.. love Dad and Mom

THE GLEN BECK AWARD FOR CHARITY; JON HUNTSMAN

Dear Family,

Went to an unusual event today with Cheryl and Paul. You all have heard and seen on TV (although much understated) Glenn Beck's Washington Mall event of 8/28/2010. He had a massive turn out that was largely for a non political event. As part of the program, he gave an award to someone who best exemplified Faith, Hope and Charity. Jon Huntsman was given the award for Charity.

Jon and his family were at a wedding of a gran daughter and could not attend the massive rally but had someone else accept the award in his honor. Today that person gave the award to Jon at a meeting up in their Huntsman Cancer Hospital. Beck always has a picture of Ben Franklin with the subtitle 'Charity' on his TV show and he put a picture of Jon as also the embodiment of Charity.

It was quite an event honoring Jon and Karen for all their charitable contributions over the years. The figure of over one billion dollars in aggregate contributions was mentioned. Tributes were paid and when it came time to place the medal around his neck, they had Glen Beck on the phone live talking to Jon and his family and the group of practitioners at the Cancer Center.

Glen Beck obviously respects and thinks so highly of Jon and was quite emotional as he commented on the award. He said that they had to search a bit for the recipients of the Faith and Hope awards but there was no question as to who would receive the Charity award. It was interesting that this was done in the Cancer Hospital which will forever be a monument to the Largess and generous giving of such an unusual person. It was impressive to see the new wing of the hospital also going up. His many other charities were mentioned and it was quite a moment. I have been watching Glen Beck and his show is interesting. He is doing his homework and makes a lot of good points relating to the direction of this country.

Well as a side note, Mom and I are trying to get ready for our trip to Germany next week to attend our former Sister Missionary, Steffi Meyne's temple marriage in Freiberg. This is the site of the Temple the Church was allowed to build in East Germany when the wall was up. We will see our AP Dario Dzierzon and his wife, Patricia (also a former sister missionary). I think we can make the trip. I am a little nervous however as they want me to present my Fireside on Joseph Smith's operation in the Cottbus ward in German of course. Yikkkes

More later Love, Mom and Dad

FALL GENERAL CONFERNCE THIS WEEKEND

Dear Family,

This is conference weekend and we are looking forward to the meetings and instruction. I hope all of you will be able to pick up the meetings.

If you cannot get it on local TV, you can get it on video streaming on LDS.org. We used to go up to Bear Lake and pick up conference but it is good to see it on our big screen. If you get tickets to attend, there is no better experience.

We will host the Post Priesthood Meeting cook out at our home and maybe even Roy and kids will be there. We will pick up this meeting in our ward and get back to the house right after. Bring all the Aaronic Priesthood kids as well!

We so look forward to the inspired messages of our Church leaders.

Alles Gute Dad

TRIP TO MAINE AND THE VASCULAR MEETING

Dear Family,

Mom and I went to the yearly meeting of the New England Vascular Society in Rockport Maine. This society was once founded by my vascular mentor, Robert Linton with whom I was associated in practice and I was one of the early members. It has been a very long time since I went to a meeting and we went to get the CME credits for licensure,

Here is a picture of Mom at the edge of the bay; the meeting was held on Penobscot Bay and everything was so New England. The meeting was OK but it was mostly non surgical stuff. I met a member who was a resident when I was on staff at the MGH, Craig Donaldson; we published a paper together. I met some of Doug's surgical teachers at the MGH who are two generations younger than me,

What was really great was being back in Maine, the site of deer hunts, family vacations on Lake Sabeo and High Adventure trips with the Explorer scouts canoing down class II white water rivers, And of course there was the cusine! Mom and I flew to Boston, rented a car and with the GPS drove to Rockport which was a four hour drive. We stopped at Kittyport, Maine and found a great seafood restaurant. They had two 1 1/4 pound lobsters for $17.00. This has been a good year for lobsters. Also had a bucket of Steamed clams that you see in the picture. Probably 20 years since we had that treat.

The meeting was held at a fancy resort overlooking the Bay and we left the door open in the evening to fill the room with fresh sea air and it was great. The meetings were in the morning and we had the afternoons free. We discovered another great sea food place out in the bay a bit with their own lobster pots

Here is that great place that has bee there for years, Had a lobster which is pictured below; there is absolutley no sea food better than a fresh Maine lobster boiled.

Rockport and Rockland are artsy little towns and we visited the Andrew Wyeth art museum and saw where three generations of Wyeths contributed to American art,


Here is the bruiser that was good for almost two meals.










For smaller snacks, they had these Lobster roll shops that you can visit after the art exhibits. This is a junior roll and it is economically better to get the big lobster.

We stayed till Sunday. Mom caught the tail end of the Women's Conference on the Internet. Sunday morning I finished the meetings and we got to church. There was a little branch close to the Resort and Sacrament meeting was interesting and it was great to see faithful members up there in Maine. We drove four hours to Boston n and had a four hour plane ride back and it is good to be home again.

Doug and Christina went to the Western Vascular meeting somewhere in Oregon; I thin we had better papers and food.

Love, Dad

CLOSING UP BEAR LAKE

Dear Family,

Can't believe the spring and summer have gone by. Fall is in the air and it seemed like we just got finished getting the place in St. Charles, Idaho ready for the summer family use. We got up there on the Fourth of July but could not get back again. It was time to go up there but time constraints were tight so Doug, Nate, Spence, Rebecca, friend Autumn and I drove up in the Ford 250 Diesel to get the place ready for the winter freeze.


We drove up on Saturday evening after all the football games to try and do as much as possible before Sunday. These kids sports really seem to define life.

We did not stop till we got to Garden City on Bear Lake and stopped at the Famous Rasberry Shake place on the East side of Hwy 89. It is owned and run by one of our former missionaries
Taggert Hunsaker. It was good to see him again; he is married, had a child, finishing college and getting ready to apply to medical school. There is a thriving business at his shake shoppe and they are good.

We got to the place; started on the machines, backed the boat in and finally tired, the kids sacked out on the couches after watching a DVD. The photo above shows Becca and Nate with Doug in the Easy Chair. We got up and had cereal and went to the St. Charles ward up the street. I love going to church there. The person who gave our Quorum lesson was a rancher, tall, very lean, slightly bowlegged, western style suit, dress cowboy boots and large hands that have seen a lot of work. He gave one of the best lessons on Faith. I saw Idea Mae Schram there who was born in the front bedroom or our house when it belonged to the Pugmires.

She told me about the old house that stands in the middle of our hayfield. It was built there by a family in the 1920's who were destitute. It has no electricity or running water' water was carried by the pail from the hand pump in our front lawn. I am told that it is the exsact demensions of the Peter Whitmer farn house in new York.

It is in disrepair but people stop by and phtograph it. We have seen it on Xmas cards. An artist stopped and asked a neighbor if he could do an oil painting so it must have inherent charm.

Ida Mae's grandaughter stopped by the house after church. She used the old home in the field as a backdrop for her senior high school class pictures. She gave me one and her she is inside the old house photographed against the backdrop of old newspaper wall paper and she is pretty cute. I do love these people up here; no pretense and so happy.

We finally got the pick up packed and back home. I got there in time to go with Mom to another missionary fireside group which was held at the combined Bishop's Storehouse on 3rd South and 5600 West. This is the main storehouse and supplies other storehouse in the Northwest, California and South East in Florida. It is a vast operation. The curent storehouse is 450,000 square feet and they are building anothe which will give the Church 1,000,000 square feet of storage for food clothing and other potential disaster needs. The Church has 150 large semis with drivers who have Temple recomends, satelite phones, cells phones and a truck load of prepacked emergency supplies. When there is a potential disaster many trucks are sent to the area and encirlce it but wait in the back ground until needed and then they motor into a flood or hurricane area with supplies. They said it has given new meaning to the term FEMA which is short for a government agency. To the people of a disaster struck area it means, Find Every Mormon Available.


We go to Maine this week.. Oh got invited to do a fireside in the Cotbus Gemeinde while we are in Germany.. hope I can crank it out in German

Alles Gute und alles Liebe,

Mom and Dad

BUSY WEEK AND WEEKEND

Dear Family,

We had a full week and weekend. Thursday night, we had a church activity with the Elder's Quorum and the younger boys; a shotgun shooting party and pizza get together at a gun range. I love those church activities! When some of the younger guys started handling shotguns I stepped behind them as a safe place but when they started shooting traps, many were dead eyes and natural wing shooters.

Friday, we attended Elise Hubbard's marriage to Chris P. in the Salt Lake temple. She was such a little doll and was so happy. Richard Webb and Martha S. were there representing the old Michigan gang. We went to their luncheon at the Lion House and Emily came up as well. They are such a great couple.

That night we were with our Theater and Dinner Group, old Missionary buddies and wives from 55 years ago. They have this theater in the round called the Hale theater. We went to see Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance. Check out the link. It was great fun and a good Friday Night Date.

Saturday, we went to the University of Utah football game up in the box. This is a picture of the band going nuts; you can see the box in the upper part of the photo. U of U won 38-10 and it was a fun game to watch. Paul brought some of the kids including little Johnny. There are all kinds of food and drink in the box; there was a complete turkey dinner with pumpkin pie in the hall but Johnny made a bee line to Mom's great purse and started burrowing into it like a little ground hog and found, at the bottom, a bunch of lollipops so we passed those out. When Cheryl asked him how he liked the game, he said, "I got a lollipop out of Grandma's purse".

We left the game early to drive to Mapleton to attend the Saturday evening session of Stake Conference. Mike was called to the Bishopric of his ward as second councilor and I ordained him a High Priest. So proud of him and his family. Had a little dessert at his house, drove Rachel over to Emily's house to check out Natalie and a guy friend. All neat kids.

Sunday was our regular church but I had two Patriarchal Blessings in the evening in our home. We went to Cheryl and Paul for Family night. The spazz little guys finally settled down and we had a combined lesson. Paul jr. plays the church hymns so well. Mary Clare and Loren acted out the story of Elijah and the priests of Baal from the Old Testament story. Cheryl is their Primary teacher.

It is Monday and we start all over again. We will go up to Bear Lake on the weekend with Doug and his family to close up the place.

Wish you all well and remember all the expectant Moms in your prayers.

Love, Dad and Mom

MOM DOES A BACKYARD WEDDING RECEPTION

Mom' niece, Lisa Brinton, Aunt Marilyn's daughter, got married on Friday. She married Joseph Keller in the Salt Lake Temple.

They met on LDS Singles. It is great the many ways people find each other. They are a cute couple and are so happy.

Mom suggested they have their reception in our backyard. They came over and liked the set up and the work began.

Mom began to work on the garden, pulling weeds, having old hedges removed, planting more flowers, getting the waterfall going and bringing in more potted plants. The Brintons arranged for all the food using the downstairs kitchen as home base. They rented chairs, called in the desert caters, hung lights and decorated the back yard.

The guests came in the lower back yard gate and past the reception line that you see in the upper photo. The lower garden was the site of the main food, chicken salad sandwiches, fruit, vegtables and dip, and cheese and crackers.


On the upper level, there were catered desserts, wedding cake and special wedding punch. It was a neat reception if I do say so. Anywhere from 200 - 300 guests came and except for the little kids wanting to see the lion in my office and the crocodile and leopard downstairs, it was all in the backyard.

I thought we were finished with wedding reception but maybe this was also a dry run for any grand kid who may want to have a reception at Oma and Opa's. Mom and Marilyn did a great job!

Love, Mom and Dad

FOOTBALL STARTS AGAIN

Dear Family,

A sign that fall is approaching8ng is the resumption of college football. Thursday night, the University of Utah (25th placed) played Pittsburg (15th placed) at the University of Utah Rice Eccles stadium.

We were invited again to the box seats on the 50 yard line and it was great.

A lot of the fun is seeing everyone who goes there; the box next to us is the President's box where all University dignitaries hang out. Senator Orin Hatch was there and seeking re-election, came over and greeted us all with the glad hand. We waved to Elder Hales and Zwick who were up there enjoying the game.

Mom chats with all the gals who come in the box but I was there watching the game and keeping little Emily Eva warm and sharing the binoculars with the grand kids. The game was great and Utah played mostly well, the defense holding the team to short yardage. At the end it was a tie on a late second field goal by Pittsburgh and went into overtime. An intercepted pass and a field goal won it for Utah.

There was such a traffic jam getting to the stadium. This was pure Stau and it took us 45 minutes to get there and it is only a short distance from the house. It was a lot of fun.

Oh as an addendum to my last post, there are three other mothers expecting in the family. Bina is expecting. Rob called s and announced that Eva was expecting and told us Suz was as well. So congratulations to these mothers; we have such wondrful grandchildren.

Alles Gute, Dad and Mom

BECCA HAS HER BABY !!!!!!!!!

Becca had her baby yesterday. This is her fifth and I believe our 72nd grandchild. (Becca, lincensed CPA, will confirm the number)

Becca and Paul moved to Heber valley last month to live in Grandpa McEntires farm house on the family 50 acres. While there, they are renting out their two homes in Highland and St. George in an effort to adjust to the new economic milieu.

We went up there a week ago to visit and they have really done a job on the old farmhouse, fixing, painting, repairing that cute home in that beautiful valley. Becca was almost full term then and was fussing about organizing pantries, things in the house displaying definite nesting urges. Mom would always do that as well as delivery time loomed near. When Becca was born and the entire family was way except for Roy, she delayed going to the hospital trying to match up 12 pairs of children's shoes for Sunday.

Becca also had a close call on her last baby almost delivering in the car. We were worried that she might have the baby somewhere in Provo canyon making her way down to American Fork where all her other children were born. She knew the time was near and even though plans were made of a weekend baby, She started feeling things Monday evening, made arrangements to go to the hospital yesterday and after only two pushes had this cute little baby boy.

He is a doll! I though he looked about a month old. He quickly found his thumb and knew what to do with it. Becca looks so great and Paul was beaming.

She will come out on Wednesday and back to Heber. We wish them well. They will name him Alexander. All their kids names start with "A"; Abigail, Andrewn, Anthony, Austin and now Alexander. They want their kids to be all "A's".

Things are getting busy again. The vacation for students is over and I am getting requests for patriarchal blessings. We are back to our shifts in the Temple. We go to Maine this month for a meeting of the New England Vascular Society (I was a founding member) for our CME credit. October will be the trip to East Germany. Need to work in a hunt there somewhere.. it is fun to think about it anyway.

We are richly blessed as a family

Alles Gute und alles Liebe,,,Dad and Mom

OKTOBERFEST IN THE UTAH MOUNTAINS

Dear Family,

It has been a long time since the last blog post. We have been busy with family and projects.

John and Emily and their kids went camping her up in Little Cottonwood Canyon and found that there was an Oktoberfest up in Snowbird high in the canyon.

Doug, Spence, Nate, Tommy, Oma and Opa went up there with Emily, John, Johnny, Natalie, Caroline, Josh, Jake and Joseph. They do this each year, had the tents etc. We went up there to get a good bratwurst.


Well here is Opa with a pretty good brat. The look reflects the pain associated with the cost of this brat but things are more expensive at altitude.

There was a musical group who yodeled, played instruments complete with accordion, large ommpa ommpa horns and everything else you associate with German folk Musik including also Dirndls and Lederhosen. The group was pretty good and the the Alpenhorns played Amazing Grace.


Outside were booths and things one could buy. They had the World Champion Yo-Yo guy doing tricks. When Doug and the boys bought Yo-Yo's he gave a little lesson to all. Here is a picture of the gang getting lessons on how to shoot Yo-Yos.

Before going to Oktoberfest, Emily brought Johnny who lacerated his leg on a sharp rock climbing in the Hills down to Doug's house. Doug stitched him up in the living room and all recalled similar incidents when Opa sutured the kids on the kitchen table at home in Boston and Michigan. Good to have a suture set at home.

Cheryl dropped her kids off for a couple of days and called one night and asked how they were doing. I replied "I got all the bleeding stopped!" Little five year old Emily broke a dish and raised a large flap of skin on the instep of her foot and was bleeding all over the place. I put pressure on it and the bleeding stopped and I did not have to suture the flap of skin. Then there was a shout from the basement, "Johnny is bleeding in his mouth!" He bit something but that bleeding stopped. I'm not sure how you can be a parent now days without some surgical skills!

School is starting and it has been a great, wild and happy summer with a great reunion and lots of family. We are greatly blessed.

Alles Gute, Mom and Dad